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Approved

This Wikimedia user group application has been approved by the Affiliations Committee.

Proposed name of Wikimedia user group: (There are some templates at Step-by-step user group creation guide#Naming of user groups.)

Wikimedians of Bulgaria User Group
Please see the Meta page Wikimedians of Bulgaria (created April 2014).

1. Who are the people behind this application?

Contributors to the Bulgarian language version of Wikipedia and its sister projects
1a. How many?
29 editors joined the initiative (from mid April to the end of October 2014)
1b. Active in which Wikimedia projects, if any?
Active in:
  • Bulgarian Wikipedia - 28
  • Wikimedia Commons - at least 7
  • WikiData - at least 4
  • Bulgarian Wikiquote - at least 3
  • Bulgarian Wikisource - at least 2
  • Wikimedia Meta - at least 3
  • TranslateWiki - at least 2
1c. How are they geographically distributed?
Out of these 29 people, 2 are non-Bulgarians, and about 5 are non-residents. At least 12 people are residents of Sofia, Bulgaria.
1d. Do you have any highly active or prominent (on local or international level) Wikimedians / Wikipedians? If so, please name a few. (provide user names and wiki of origin)
1e. How many people do you expect will eventually want to join?
We are already 29 people, it is probable that more people will want to join.

2. For the application and final agreement we will require two contact persons that can sign the Wikimedia User Group Agreement on behalf of the group. Who will those be? (please provide user names and wiki of origin) Please also include email addresses for these users either on this page or in your initial email to the Affiliations Committee (AffCom(_AT_)lists.wikimedia.org).

  1. Dimitar Dimitrov, bg:User:Dimi_z
  2. Vassia Atanassova, bg:User:Spiritia

3. Please give a short summary of your time path from the founding up to now.

Bulgarian Wikipedia was founded in December 2003. First media interview with Bulgarian Wikipedia editors was in 2005 in the weekly newspaper "Capital". More intensive media contacts started in 2008 with an externally driven initiative "Wikipedia 100 000". In October 2009, Bulgarian Wikipedia was awarded the Special Award of the "BG Site" Contest. The first university wikiprojects started in the Fall 2007/2008, and so far 9 such projects have been initiated in 5 Bulgarian universities and 1 software academy (outreach:Education/Countries/Bulgaria). The first two GLAM projects started at the same time: end of 2011: a cooperation with the Sofia Zoo, initiated by the Wikipedians, and a cooperation with the Bulgarian Archives State Agency, initiated by the then Director of the Agency, Assoc. Prof. Martin Ivanov, later Minister of Culture. The Sofia Zoo cooperation developed in a project grant funded by the Wikimedia Foundation, which was successfully completed and reported.

4. Which geographical area and context do you cover (or plan to cover) with your entity?

Geographical area: The territory of Bulgaria, with possible cross-border collaborations with neighbour Wikimedia chapters/user groups.
Context: Anything related to contributing with and improving the content of Wikipedia and its sister projects; GLAM initiatives: like the existing collaboration with the Bulgarian Archives State Agency; Educational initiatives; Cross-border collaboration.

5. Have there been any activities/meetings etc. of this group of people? If yes, please briefly describe some examples.

Residents in Sofia and Plovdiv have informal wiki meetups several times a year.
Different people engage in wiki activities like:
  • contribution to shared wiki projects,
  • mentoring of students during the university wikiprojects,
  • content digitization in the Bulgarian Archives State Agency,
  • popularization of content from Bulgarian Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons in Facebook.
Current activities have been presented in details in the Meta page Wikimedians of Bulgaria.

6. Do you keep any monthly/half-yearly/yearly reports of you activities? If yes, please provide links.

So far, no regular reports have been done, since our wiki meet-ups have mainly been informal.

7. What kind of activities are planned for the future in the user group?

Collaborations with universities, GLAM activities, establishment of a technology pool (with equipment like cameras and scanners), official working wiki-meetings, media outreach, initiatives related to popularization of Wikipedia, free content and free software.
Future activities are described in details in the Meta page Wikimedians of Bulgaria.

8. Is your entity already legally registered? Do you intend on becoming a legally registered entity in the next thirteen months?

No legally registered entity yet. This step will only be made if it is needed to run specific projects.

9. Do you have a bylaws for you entity? If yes, have the bylaws been reviewed by a lawyer/specialist?

No bylaws yet. We are, however, in contact with a lawyer, Plamena Popova, PhD, who can support us in the process of preparing the bylaws. Plamena is a long-term supporter of Bulgarian Wikipedia, and in 2012 was in contact with the WMF legal team regarding the arbitrage that led to returning the cybersquatted domain wikipedia.bg to the Wikimedia Foundation. She also was one of the university teachers who carried out with her students an educational wikiproject in Wikipedia.

10. How can the Affiliations Committee and the Wikimedia Foundation help your group?

  • Spiritia: Give us a kick in the butt! I think that all we need to start is encouragement and belief in us, in order to start believing in ourselves.
  • Dimi z: It is a very active community doing great work, running GLAM projects, co-operations, collaborations and teaching university courses. I am convinced given the trust and credibility of being a Wikimedia Foundaiton affiliate and the support structure of a local organisation will unlock even more potential. The AffCom should make sure it shares experiences and best practices of other user groups with us and ours with them, so we can all benefit from our common experience and avoid making the same mistakes.
  • Lord Bumbury (talk) Acting as a user group, and later a juristic person, would ease our communication and collaborations with institutions and companies, which would lead to us bringing even more free content, e.g. old images from the state archives, to the broad public.
  • PetaRZ (talk) bg.wiki has indeed a very active community. If this group receives an official recognition from the Wikimedia Foundation, this would, without any doubt, be rewarding and encouraging for the community. Also, it will, in my opinion, foster visibility of the community as a whole. For instance, if we want to start a new GLAM project, being the "Wikimedians of Bulgaria User Group" would be much more comprehensive for our potential partners and would correspond to what is already happening in the community
  • NBUPolSci GProd (talk) We are the best partners you ever have. Let's do it together for future possibilities. Give us a chance (kick in the butt is OK, too)!
  • Laveol: Encouragement is what we need the most on the long road ahead. As well as the occasional nudge in the right direction from time to time. The huge wiki-experience of editors in the group does not mean we will not make mistakes. A helping hand and advice are always welcome in such cases.
Submitted: →Spiritia 11:30, 3 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Acknowledged: Actively being reviewed by AffCom liaisons. --Varnent (talk)(COI) 08:06, 9 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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