Overview
In 2023, we celebrated the one-year anniversary of our new strategic impact direction around experimentation and innovation, also referred to as the Innolab. The goal of the Innovation programme is to create a space and a framework for Wikimedia CH to become a learning organisation while identifying and advancing projects that support our core purpose.
In the Innolab’s first full year of operations, the programmatic activities built upon the foundation set forth in its strategy. The programme forged important partnerships around topics like the knowledge gap, AI and climate change, among others. It also continued to support innovation within the other programmes and advance internal systems and processes that improve coordination and efficiency.
Highlight activity
Wiki Science Competition
The Wiki Science Competition, a photo contest that collects high-quality scientific images for public use, has significantly impacted education and science. It routinely garners robust participation from a global audience of professionals and amateurs alike, including photographers, scientists and educators.
Wikimedia CH is a key supporter of the Wiki Science Competition, not only in Switzerland but also on the international stage in collaboration with Wikimedia Estonia. Our involvement has been pivotal in promoting the Swiss contest, enhancing its visibility and impact within the Swiss scientific and educational communities. Our support demonstrates our dedication to enhancing the accessibility and dissemination of scientific knowledge worldwide.
The 2023 edition of the competition attracted thousands of entries from numerous countries. The contest showcased a wide range of scientific disciplines through photographs, diagrams and non-photographic media. These contributions have greatly enriched the visual representation of science, particularly on Wikimedia Commons.
The submissions are not only beautiful but also invaluable educational tools, helping to visually explain complex scientific concepts and phenomena, thereby enhancing learning experiences for students and educators. The contest has been instrumental in increasing public interest in science, making scientific research more accessible and understandable and fostering an appreciation for the beauty and complexity of scientific exploration.
In line with the principles of open access and with Wikimedia CH’s mission, the competition has significantly contributed to the public domain, offering freely usable scientific images and supporting the wider movement towards open access to scientific knowledge. The contest continues to be a cornerstone in the promotion of scientific knowledge and education through open-access platforms.
Programme activities
- Continued to advance the programme strategy by helping other programmes to improve their processes and activities, defining projects to incubate and creating new partnerships to explore and strengthen.
- Helped fund and support the “Fill the Data Gap” project to address digital discrimination and data gaps with two pivotal data crowdsourcing projects: one focusing on digital hate imagery and another identifying barriers in footpaths for barrier-free mapping.
- Partnered with Lib4RI and Science et Cité on the WikiKlima project, which aims to aggregate information related to climate change across Wikimedia platforms and bridge the gap between complex scientific data and public comprehension. The collaboration, which also identifies content gaps, will ensure that the content is not only extensive but also scientifically robust and reliable, making it a valuable resource for both the general public and the scientific community.
- Explored the integration and impact of AI technologies in supporting Wikimedia projects, analysing potential actions to enhance Wikimedia projects and assessing the impact of ChatGPT on the traffic and engagement within these projects. This initiative was pivotal in determining effective strategies for using AI to enhance the content quality, accessibility and reach of Wikimedia’s vast knowledge base.
- Finished the new IT strategy, which includes a risk assessment, knowledge transfer and the Tech Boost concept to enhance projects via developer support.
- Identified new internal tools to support team and project functioning, including the Kanban framework that the team now uses to track projects.
- Established partnerships with technical partners, mainly in the fields of innovation, science and IT.
- Continued to help the other programmes introduce innovation into their activities by facilitating innovation sprints and the concept of continuous improvement for their projects.
Programme impact
- Our support of the “Fill the Data Gap” project helped it make significant strides in raising awareness about digital discrimination and the importance of closing data gaps. Through our presentations and workshops, we have educated a wide audience on these critical issues. The crowdsourcing projects have begun to address specific data gaps, leading to tangible improvements, such as developing more inclusive, barrier-free maps.
- Through our collaboration with Lib4RI and Science et Cité on WikiKlima, we have helped establish a solid foundation, highlighting the project’s potential to be a key educational and informational resource.
- Our support of the Wiki Science Competition has helped the photo contest continuously grow over the years, enriching Wikimedia projects with scientific knowledge, engaging new audiences and promoting cross-cultural and international collaboration. This project has been critical to advancing our commitment to fill the knowledge gap in science and scientific content.
- A diverse range of programme activities and outreach helped engage a growing community of scientists and technicians who are enthusiastic about free knowledge.
Looking ahead
In 2024, we will continue the strategic alignment of the programme, building in-house knowledge and partnerships to advance our mission. This includes defining the incubator structure and projects to incubate, as well as how to support other programmes. We’ll continue to strengthen technological and engineering aspects and build up projects we started in 2023 around climate change, knowledge equity and AI. We will also continue developing a translation tool for multilingual online meetings.
We’ll continue supporting the “Fill the Data Gap” project with presentations and workshops, and we will establish partnerships with Amnesty International and Awareness in Art to enhance and integrate workshops into their educational programs. The aim is to complete the first phase of the project by the second quarter of 2024, alongside developing a framework for diversity and data gaps to address digital justice.
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Photo credits
- A new monohedral polyhedron of type 3 with genus 1. It has 28 vertices, 56 faces and 84 edges, and it exhibits dihedral D_7 symmetry. The image was rendered in Blender and the polyhedron was set in scene with an iridescent surface of mother-of-pearl. The picture is part of the article "New families of monohedral polyhedra", submitted for publication in the "Journal of Mathematics and the Arts", in collaboration with Nina Hungerbühler and Marcel Pirron. Entry in the Wiki Science Competition 2023, a global photo contest. Photo by Norbert Hungerbühler - own work, CC BY 4.0.
- Image for Programme Innovation's strategy for 2022-2025. Report by Ilario (Wikimedia CH) - own work, CC BY 4.0.
- Lizard (Podarcis) on a wall in Switzerland. Entry in the Wiki Science Competition 2023, a global photo contest. Photo by Lavandulifolia - own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Swiss flyer for the Wiki Science Competition 2023. Image by Alexmar983 - own work, CC BY 4.0 DEED.
- The homepage of the Wikimini project, which benefitted from a Tech Boost. Image by Valerio Bozzolan - own work, https://wikimini.org/, https://fr.wikimini.org/wiki/Wikimini:Droits_d'utilisation, File:Wikimini-logo-transparent.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0.
- 2020 screenshot of the main page of Matomo 4.0, which benefitted from a Tech Boost. Image by Valerio Bozzolan - own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- The scientific photographs of Bart Vercruysse (shown in photo) make it possible to complete the collection of herbarium parts for the identification, monitoring and conservation of threatened and endemic species of the island of Fogo. These photographs complement field work carried out by the Projecto Vito Association with the support of the Audemars Piguet Foundation (Le Brassus-Suisse). Entry in the Wiki Science Competition 2023, a global photo contest. Photo by Roguet Didier - own work, CC BY 4.0.
- An Indian peafowl chick at the Zurich Zoo. Photo by Winkelbohrer from Schweiz - DSC_3854Uploaded by Snowmanradio, CC BY-SA 2.0.
- Lauterbrunnen. Entry in Wiki Loves Switzerland 2022. Photo by Dini78 - own work, CC BY-SA 4.0.