Education/News/October 2021/Wikipedia on Silesia Cieszyn in Poland

Wikipedia on Silesia Cieszyn (Czech Silesia) in Poland and in Czech Republic

Author: Klara Sielicka-Baryłka (WMPL) (talk)

Summary: Read about how to use Wikipedia to create awareness of local history and culture! “Cieszyn Silesia in Wikipedia” is a project aimed at disseminating knowledge about the region, language, and culture of Cieszyn Silesia. The project is carried out by the Education team at the Wikimedia Polska Association on the initiative of the Polish Center at the Congress of Poles in the Czech Republic. It is also run in cooperation with the Wikimedia Czech Republic Education team.

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  Wiki-workshop Day 1
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  Wiki-workshop Day 2
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  Press conference in Český Těšín
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  Wiki photo-walk

After half a year of planning, Polish Wikipedians, with the support of the Czech Wikipedians, appeared in person(!) on the Polish-Czech border. For what? To implement the main part of the project 'Cieszyn Silesia in Wikipedia' ― Wikipedia:Śląsk Cieszyński w Wikipedii.

For several days, we intensively trained students from five schools. Among them, there were schools from Poland and those with Polish as the language of lectures, located in the Czech Republic. In this special region, where the Olza River divides the city that used to be one, into two separate Cieszyn and Czech Cieszyn, we spoke several languages, we fought against IP blockades, we ate doughnuts and drink kofola and above all ― we showed young students how to transfer their knowledge of language and culture, the history of the region into Wikipedia. We also invited local libraries, archives, and museums to cooperate ― Wikimedians and teachers visited these places, documenting the fascinating collections. In turn, on the photo wiki-walk with the guide, we heard a lot of stories about Cieszyn. On this occasion, we took pictures for Wikimedia Commons, of course. Currently, students are working on articles for Polish and Czech Wikipedia, and they are uploading photos to Wikimedia Commons. A specially formed jury will evaluate this contribution, and an exhibition summarizing the project will open in December in Český Těšín.

You can try to feel those emotions by going through the photo documentation of each day: Category:Śląsk Cieszyński w Wikipedii. Welcome to our (still growing) gallery of photos uploaded by the students, too! See here: Category:Media uploaded in the Śląsk Cieszyński w Wikipedii project.

"Cieszyn Silesia on Wikipedia" "is a project aimed at disseminating knowledge about the region, language, and culture of Cieszyn Silesia. We want to achieve this goal by adding to Wikipedia information and materials crucial for the region in cooperation with young people and teachers. The program includes workshops and meetings with students, during which knowledge on editing Wikipedia and adding photos on Wikimedia Commons is also provided. The project is funded by a grant from Polish Congress from the Czech Republic. Wikimedia Polska invited to cooperate the team of the Wikimedia Česká Republika, too.

Social Media channels or hashtags: #wikimediapolska