Iffcool

Ivo Kruusamägi

Admin in Estonian Wikipedia

About me

I have been on Wikipedia since 2006. I'm mainly active in Estonian Wikipedia (where I'm an administrator) and in Commons (where I'm also a member of VRT team). Some of the attention goes towards the English wiki, Wikidata, Estonian Wikiquote, and Võro wiki (where I'm also an admin). In total, I've made over 170k edits. That involves over 1000 created articles and 10k+ added images, some of them featured.

On the early days of my contributions I often wrote articles related to art (like in ceramics and in graphics), but later there has rarely been any specific focus (some examples on random topics: Nordic economy, Rein Kilk, Pakri protected area, Malusi islands, electrical detonator, World Cube Association, Tartu Ülikool 350, etc). Articles related to the field of study have unfortunately been somewhat rare (but there still are some of them). But then again, many years ago (ca 10) I've sort of abandoned active article creation as the need to copyedit and expand existing ones is far greater in Estonian Wikipedia. But I haven't abandoned that entirely and do create and update articles when something new is needed (example).

I created a new front page design for Estonian Wikipedia (used 2008–2016) and was involved with adding the weekly information in the first years (and proposing content ever since). I've also composed most of the thematic portals in Estonian Wikipedia that came into existence together with the new front page back in 2008. Later I helped bit with a facelift in Estonian Wikisource. In 2020 I set up a new front page design for Võro Wikipedia and in 2022 for Estonian Wikiquote (including dealing with the front page content).

Out from the Estonian wikiphotographers I have added the most images to Wikimedia Commons, that are actually used in articles. I am the 2nd user from Estonia by the number of featured images added to Commons (most recently 26 FPs). Something like 22% of images of the week in Estonian Wikipedia has been uploaded by me. I normally don't participate in competitions as I attend to organize them instead, but in Wiki Loves Monuments 2016 my image got 15th place internationally.

I belong to Commons Photographers User Group and I've contributed to 100wikiDays craze by starting the idea of #100wikiCommonsDays. I'm organizing activities for the Estonian wikiphotographers and try to showcase them and their best work. I select the (Estonian) Wikiphotographer of the Year.

I have been involved in the selection process of quality articles. In 2017 I reworked the article quality categorization system in Estonian Wikipedia (inc. creating A and B quality classes for articles in addition to featured articles) and set up an article quality criterion page. I've written one featured article and contributed heavily to many good articles (including assembling 5.7% of them myself).

I've also assembled the list of 1000 vital articles about Estonia, trying to push them into better shape and convince other countries to assemble similar lists. That should help to identify more important areas, identify content caps and give a better understanding of how well are some topics covered across languages.

Over the years I've given over ten conference presentations, somewhere around 50...100 lectures about Wikipedia, and held many workshops related to the topic. I have also talked about this topic in the media on many occasions (newspapers, radio, television) and published several articles in media and books. I've been holding up the social media accounts for Wikipedia and have set up several email newsletters. From here and here you could find some blog posts by me.

I've tried to document the history of Estonian Wikipedia and the people behind it (example), as I think that this is often neglected, but a vital part to tell the story of Wikipedia (that is also the main reason, why this page here is rather long; if I wouldn't write it down, noone will, but it is rather significant for the history of Estonian Wikipedia). I also collect statistical information about et.wiki and Estonian wikiphotographers (one example on this, that I set up for the Estonian Wikipedia's 20th anniversary).

Twice I've been awarded Estonian Science Communication Award 2nd prize. In 2016 for the Estonian Science Photo Competition and in 2019 as the best science communicator.

I've also organized and/or been a jury member in so many article competitions it is truly difficult to count them (there are more than 4 article competitions per year and I arranged my first that competition already in 2010).

In 2023 I managed to get myself into a SLAPP case. Not only is that first court case involving the Estonian Wikipedia, but the man behind it is among the wealthiest in Estonia and two other sued persons are a former Estonian prime minister and one other long-serving cabinet minister.

Outside Wikipedia "work" I have studied genetic engineering at the University of Tartu and done various other things in many fields. These include organizing international competitions, art expositions, dancing Estonian folk dances or just being entrepreneurial. I've picked up investing in stock markets and recently set up a solar farm. I'm a member of the Estonian Students' Society.

My work

Most of the photo-related activities in Estonian Wikipedia (from different competitions, photo-collecting campaigns, photoexpeditions, exhibitions and getting image donations) are organized by me. I also expanded the Estonian Science Photo Competition into European Science Photo Competition in 2015 and the worldwide Wiki Science Competition (WSC) in 2017, that is held once every two years.

Over the years I've organized 24 image collecting campaigns + 10 more, where the images were first collected somewhere else than to Wikimedia Commons. Out of them I'm mainly proud of the HELP campaign, which was first held already in the summer of 2010 and is the oldest image campaign in Wikimedia that I know of. In 2019 it was already HELP10 and the number of images was well past 3000. In total over 50% of images from there are being used in articles and it has an extremely high percentage of FP-s, which has also pushed Estonia among the countries with the most featured nature images in Commons. This image collecting campaign also likley acted as one of the inspirations for the WLE.

I've carried out some article competitions (15 in total; example 1, example 2, etc). The photography competitions I've organized have brought well over 40k images into Commons. Article competitions have involved over 1000 articles. I've also been a jury member for several article and photo competitions both in Estonia and abroad (like WLM in Finland; WLE in Latvia, Ireland, and Spain).

I started arranging image expeditions in Estonia in 2012. By 2024 I've organized 17 of them, and they have brought nearly 4500 images into Wikimedia Commons. I've also helped others to set up image expeditions. I still have a backlog of over 1000 images from them, that are yet to be uploaded, so I've been less active on that in recent years.

I'm now also heavily involved with starting cooperation projects with museums (example). From virtual exhibitions (like "The decisive years prior to Independence: Moments from the Estonian art of 1914–18") to helping to collect data about paintings. I'd like to set up a separate WikiMuseum site, that could act as one Wikimedia sister projects, and help to collect that type of information, that Wikimedia is currently lacking. In 2021 I started the Wikipedia Art Month, and I've dealt with collecting modern artworks into Wikimedia.

I look at Wikipedia mainly as an educational project and I think that it should deal much more with the education system. Therefore I am leading our Education Program in Estonia since its start in 2010. Not only have I dealt with students writing wiki articles, but also get some image donations from university and even run a 3 ECTS course "About Free Culture on the Example of Wikipedia". One talk about it. There have also been many university students who have been in a trainee position under me. Since 2022 Wikimedia Eesti is considered a strategic partner of the Ministry of Education and Science.

The University of Tartu is also our main partner to expand and promote to use of Wikipedia in Estonia. Together with the university, we were working on a major project called miljon+, that has an ambitious end goal of getting Estonian Wikipedia among the Wikipedias with over a million articles. It was a nationwide Wikipedia promotion project that ran from 2017–2020 and had several subprojects. It was started with a cooperation with Mart Noorma and was run together with Sirli Zupping et. al.

As I'm working to expand the university program, then if you have some ideas, research topics, etc on what students could do, then please let me know. I've done some not-university-related education projects as well (example, example) and this area is about the expand significantly in the coming years.

Software development. Together with A. Frantskjavitsius et. al. we've developed a mass translation tool and wikieditor Minority Translate, that is designed specifically for smaller sized Wikipedias (feedback: "It's like content translation on steroids!"). With the help of K. Tappel we have put together a rapid feedback tool for Wikipedia – wikiComment (no longer maintained). I've also looked into involving university students in MediaWiki software development. So far it has resulted in a bachelor thesis "3D Model Viewer for the Mediawiki Software" by H. Alasi in UT Institute of Computer Science.

I have organized different meetups for wikipedians. That includes Wikipedia Summer Days and various events for wikimedians. I was involved with starting the Wikimedia Northern Europe regional group and I was organizing the 2nd meeting of Nordic wikimedians that took place in 2019 in Tartu. I've been involved with organizing Finno-Ugric wikiseminars and Wikimedia Hackathon 2024.

I was the founder of Wikimedia Eesti, that is the Wikimedia chapter in Estonia, and a board member there from 2010 to 2012, and once again from 2021 to 2023 as Board Chairman. Starting from summer 2018 until summer 2021 I was a program manager at Wikimedia Eesti. From the summer of 2023 I'm executive director at Wikimedia Eesti. I've also put together chapters 2030 strategy.