Ukrainian wiki community

during the war

from short-term stitches to long-term adaptation

Introduction

• About me
• Plan for today
• Presentation (~20 minutes)
• Q&A (~5 minutes)

I’ll be around online for any followup questions / discussions afterwards

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Wikimedians who’ve died defending Ukraine since 2022

Mykola Kravchenko, 38, UkWikipedia contributor (March 2022)

Crimean Chamber, CC BY-SA 4.0

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Volodymyr Vakulenko, 49, UkWikipedia contributor (March-May 2022)

Марія Лисицька-Бескорса, CC BY-SA 4.0

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Yurii Lushchai, 42, RuWikipedia admin & UkWiki contributor (March 2024)

Лущай Юрій Володимирович, CC BY-SA 4.0

Wikimedians who’ve died defending Ukraine since 2022

Volodymyr Hula, 30, UkWikipedia contributor & ArbCom member (September 2023)

Burshtyn city council, fair use

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Valerii Semerhei, 24, Wikimarathon participant as a student (July 2024)

Atoly, CC BY-SA 4.0

Background – Russia’s war in Ukraine

• Russia’s war against Ukraine is in its third year & shows no signs of ending soon.
• Ukraine has held up after the most difficult first couple of months. Life goes on despite the war. Businesses are running, people are celebrating birthdays, wikimedians are gathering for conferences.
• But it’s getting harder as the invaders are trying to wear Ukraine out.

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Wikimarathon in a shelter in Kharkiv, January 2024

(photo by Venzz, CC BY 4.0)

First days & months of the war

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Wikipedia as a source of information

• With the war’s start, readers were desperately looking for information – from general context to specific life-saving advice.

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• Audiences for news media immediately skyrocketed – and Wikipedia readership also grew.

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Community capacity

• Increased readership put a strain on the volunteer community – at the very time when Wikipedia was of the least priority to many of the volunteers affected by the war.
• User activity decreased sharply at the beginning (108,237 user edits in UkWiki in March 2022 – 40% decrease year-over-year).
• The situation became more stable two months into the war’s start – after Ukraine liberated the regions around Kyiv, the capital city.

Community resiliency

At the same time, the community has been more resilient than one might have feared:

• many people have continued to volunteer for Wikipedia while in wartorn Ukraine as a way to be useful and keep mental sanity;
• Ukrainians living abroad doubled down on their activity;
• different forms of coordinated response emerged.

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(Some of the) responses

• Fast-tracked decision making among the volunteer community – e.g. temporary administrators under a simplified procedure
• Support from the international volunteer community – e.g. global administrators helping fight destructive edits

(Some of the) responses

Institutional support:

Existing structures and barriers, community resilience, institutional support have helped keep Ukrainian Wikipedia up and running in the short-term.

In a nutshell

The situation & challenges today

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The situation today

• Wikipedia remains a vital source for people during the war.
• There are no huge spikes like at the beginning, but there’s an appetite for verified information amidst challenged media ecosystem.
• Community members are affected by the war and its impacts in a lot of ways, both direct and indirect.

How the war changed people’s lives

70% wikimedians from our poll report reduced ability to contribute compared to the pre-war period:

• The biggest single reason is regular power outages, which are caused by Russian attacks on civilian energy infrastructure.
• Other notable reasons include reduced income because of the war & direct impact of the hostilities.

Wikimedia Ukraine’s office during a blackout, fall 2022

(photo by Anton Protsiuk, CC0)

Power outages

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people have even less time & resources to volunteer for Wikipedia

• “if you don’t [often] have power, you have to prioritise your job”
• indirect impacts: “try going through a heat wave without air conditioning”

Economic impact of the war

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people report having their income reduced => more work to make up / more stress => less time for Wikipedia

• “high stress level impacts my productivity”

Challenges for community members

Relocation

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20% wikimedians* haven’t been able to return home =>

• “less free time as you need to learn a new language, adjust to a new culture; you lack support from relatives and friends”
• “I don’t have access to my [personal] library and archives”

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Mobilisation

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people are joining the army, men are getting called up

• Some manage to contribute from the army, but it’s the exception
• Bigger impact because of the gender gap in Wikimedia
• Considerable impact for WMUA as an organization

Challenges for community members

*NB: data from our poll, the sample size is relatively small

Silver linings

• “It’s because of the war that I joined Wikipedia properly. I realized that it was more important than ever for people to have quick access to information in their native language”.

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• “Editing Wikipedia keeps me together”.

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What can we do?

How can you help?

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How to think about helping ca. 2024

• There are much fewer immediate emergencies today – cases where people e.g. lose their home right now happen, but not at a mass scale.
• But we need to think about what it takes to keep volunteer capacity in the long term in the wake of challenges we just discussed.

Wikimedia Ukraine’s role

• In the early days – facilitating direct help to community members immediately affected by the war.
• Today – delivering on our core programs & thus helping indirectly: giving people new skills, motivating them (even a scholarship to Wikimania is a huge boost), training educators etc.
• I’d love for us to do more, but we are also strained – WMUA faces the same challenges as the wider community.

How can you help?

• The most accessible way is to help showcase Ukraine as part of your Wikimedia contributions.
• Join WMUA’s annual Ukraine’s Cultural Diplomacy Month & write / contribute about Ukraine elsewhere.
• As the next step, help organize this work in your community, e.g. by supporting an editathon.

Wikimarathon for Ukrainians in the Netherlands

(photo by Oksana Ivanivna Savchuk, CC BY 4.0)

Ukraine’s Cultural Diplomacy Month 2024 in the Philippines (photo by Kunokuno, CC BY-SA 4.0)

How can you help?

Donate money to help Ukrainian wikimedians:

• Initiative to document & help formally prosecute Russian war crimes by a Kharkiv team, including wikimedian Serhii Petrov

(learn more | support)

• Support energy independence – ensuring work during power outages (reach out to discuss)
• Support defence eforts – wikimedians in the army (reach out to discuss)

anton.protsiuk@wikimedia.org.ua

t.me/protanton

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How can you help?

Donate your time and expertise to help Ukrainian wikimedians & Wikimedia Ukraine’s work:

• There are some specific ways to do this (like volunteer for Wiki Loves Monuments in Ukraine) & even more ways we haven’t thought of yet.
• Reach out to discuss:

anton.protsiuk@wikimedia.org.ua

wlm@wikimedia.org.ua for Wiki Loves Monuments

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How can you help?

Nothing would be more helpful than for Ukraine to win & end the war.

Help Ukraine more broadly:

• Speak out and voice your support – attention matters
• Donate money if you can (e.g. savelife.in.ua for defence, u24.gov.ua for defence & humanitarian support)

Questions & answers

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