From students to Wikipedians: Summer scholars expand Tāmaki Makaurau history
19 February 2025
Aotearoa New Zealand editors in the spotlight
10 March 2025
Connecting with other editors at WikiCon 2025
When Bojan Jankuloski began editing Wikipedia in early 2006, the English version had not yet reached one million articles, there was no such thing as a visual editing (all edits were done in source mode), and the coverage in his native language of Macedonian was much poorer. The movement has grown in multiple ways over the years since, including the development of many new Wikimedia chapters across the world.
While living in Macedonia, Bojan helped drive the growth and development of his local Wikimedia chapter, where he held a role as a Programme Manager. An important part of Bojan's work was organising and executing collaborations with educational institutions and community groups, which led to the development and improvement of Wikimedia content on a range of topics.
A particular focus of this content development has been on local history and heritage, something which Bojan has been interested in since he was a child.
“One thing we were particularly proud of is the expeditions that we did, what we called Wikiexpeditions, that was systematically going on road trips to areas, usually countryside towns and villages, and photographing everything that we know as notable.”
The key to these expeditions was doing “some prior research, but only some,” explained Bojan. Once on location, you would learn more by talking with the locals who – while they “aren't necessarily the proper source,” – could provide leads on where to find more information.
The programme was also a success thanks to the diversity of volunteers involved, who were able to bring a variety of skills to the mix. Photographers and drone operators gathered visual content, while having a Wikipedian in Residence at organisations such as the National Archives and the Academy of Arts and Sciences helped with researching and digitising resources.
“These are small places, but quite deep in history … We would marry up what we found on the ground with what there is in the academic field, often in books that have been written long ago and gathered dust.”
Bojan was also involved in a project that studied changes in dialects, which involved acquiring old recordings from a local language institute, then recording people from the same place now and analysing how they've changed over time. These recordings were then able to be used in articles on dialects, along with pronunciations of place names.
At his current role as a Research Librarian for Research Central in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Bojan helps people and organisations access and interpret information about their family and local history. He recognises that a lot of the resources kept there are currently difficult to access, sharing that an estimated “80% of what the library holds as knowledge is not yet available online,” and wants to help improve this through his work.
Bojan checking the gray wolf QRpedia plaque at Skopje Zoo © Bjankuloski06, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Recently, Bojan has been helping Auckland Council develop a smartphone app which shows users images and information about the history of their local environment as they explore through guided walks. Along with helping people connect with their surroundings, this work is also helping make resources available for use on Wikipedia. Bojan also spends time travelling to various areas of Auckland with his camera, visually documenting its architectural heritage for Wikipedia, and preparing Wikidata items for each place or building.
Bojan is looking forward to connecting with other Wikipedians at WikiCon in Ōtautahi Christchurch in May this year, and sharing more about the resources and services available at Research Central and how they can help with your articles.
WikiCon 2025, the annual gathering for editors of Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikisource projects, is taking place in Ōtautahi Christchurch from Friday 16 – Sunday 18 May 2025. More information and tickets can be found here.
