The #EtnoWiki project is an inter-university project that engages a group anthropologists and in activities on the Polish Wikipedia platform. These activities are related to the creation, correction, completion and translation of entries on cultural anthropology, ethnology and ethnography into Polish.

Project objectives:

Activities carried out as part of #EtnoWiki are a continuation of initiatives undertaken since 2012 at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, where, as part of information technology classes taught by Agata Stanisz, PhD. The students have been working on so-called ethno-wiki keywords. So far, about 90 of them have been created.

Independently from the activities of IEiAK of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, in 2015/16, on the initiative of Klara Sielicka-Baryłka, a project entitled “Ceremonial year with Wikipedia” was launched. It is based on joint field research by employees of the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, editors and photographers of Wikipedia and volunteers – mostly students and PhD students of ethnology from all over Poland. The idea of developing Wikipedia in terms of ethnographic knowledge is continued by the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw as part of the Carpathian Ethnography project implemented in 2016/17.

In the meantime (23 November 2016), the Extraordinary Meeting of Polish Ethnologists and Anthropologists was held in Poznań. The intention of the meeting was to identify concrete strategies that, among other things, would allow the promotion of anthropological knowledge in the public space. Among the proposals presented during the second part of the congress, there appeared the postulate of supplementing and spreading anthropological knowledge through concrete action: editing ethnographic, ethnological and anthropological entries on Wikipedia. This issue was raised on the forum of the congress by Celina Strzelecka representing the University of Wroclaw. The activation of anthropologists in the Internet space using the possibilities offered by Wikipedia seems to be one of the most important, partly already implemented strategies.

The effect of the Extraordinary Congress of Polish Ethnologists and Anthropologists is to bring together various institutions related to ethnology and cultural anthropology and edit their entries together. Agata Stanisz (IEiAK UAM in Poznań) and Celina Strzelecka – KEiAK UWr undertook the coordination of this project. On 22.01.2017, an invitation to cooperation was created, as well as an open group on Facebook #EtnoWiki which is the first communication and discussion platform in this project.

At the turn of 2017 and 2018, the Polish Folklore Society Poznań Branch in cooperation with the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at Adam Mickiewicz University and the Wikimedia Commons Association organised a series of workshops “Ethnographers in Wikipedia”. The coordinator of the workshops was Karolina Dziubata MA from IEiAK UAM. Anna Weronika Brzezińska (IEiAK UAM, PTL o/Poznań) and Agata Stanisz (IEiAK UAM) were also involved in the organisation. Nine participants took part in the classes. They were trained in the principles of operation of Wikipedia as an open Internet resource and how to enter and edit encyclopaedic entries on their own. The trainings were conducted by wikipedians from Poznan: Natalia Szafran-Kozakowska and Piotr Gackowski.

The main goal of the workshops was to supplement Wikipedia’s resources with reliable information on selected researchers. The final effect was to supplement or create biographical entries on the environment of Wielkopolska cultural researchers – folklorists, ethnographers, ethnologists, cultural anthropologists and folklorists. Workshop participants created and completed a total of thirteen biographical entries on Wielkopolska ethnographers and ethnographers: Zofia Szembekówna, Wiesława Aniela Cichowicz, Jan Piotr Dekowski, Zespół Folklorystyczny “Szamotuły”, Alojzy Cybulski, Witold Armon, Antonina Woźna, Janina Foltyn, Stefan Szolc-Rogoziński, Kazimierz Nowak, Jan Czekanowski, Helena Cichowicz and Ludwik Zachariasz Cichowicz. Workshop page: Ethnographers in Wikipedia

To date, the following have joined the #EtnoWiki project: the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Wrocław, the Polish Folklore Society, the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, and the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Łódź.

The project remains open: CALL FOR COOPERATION Contact: Dr Agata Stanisz, stanisz@amu.edu.pl Otwarta #EtnoWiki discussion group #EtnoWiki project website