Initiatives · Est. 2010
Beyond client work — the community projects we have run since 2010
WikiBusines comes out of the Ukrainian Wikipedia community, and part of our work was never for sale: a contest that filled coverage gaps, an anthology of Ukrainian futurism, and a volunteer patrol against vandalism and disinformation. This page preserves the record.
The timeline
Sixteen years in the ecosystem
The dates below come from the public record — our original site and independent press coverage. Where a date was never published, we omit it rather than reconstruct it.
WikiBusines was founded in Kyiv in 2010 by editors from the Ukrainian Wikipedia community. Client work pays for the company; the projects on this page are what the same people did for the ecosystem itself. The team behind both is introduced on the about page.
2010
Founded in Kyiv
WikiBusines starts as a team of editors from the Ukrainian Wikipedia community.
Feb 2021
Wikipatrol profiled
Rubryka publishes a long-form profile of the volunteer patrol co-founded by Roman Melnyk.
Sep 2021
«Zvyzdobolid» presented
The futurism anthology launches at the Interfax-Ukraine press centre in Kyiv.
2025
Wikimarathon runs
A 30-day contest works on Ukrainian Wikipedia's coverage gap around global entrepreneurs.
2026
The record continues
The same community work now informs how we assess, write and defend client pages.
Initiative 01 · Wikimarathon
A Wikipedia contest for «Inspirational stories of entrepreneurs»
Ukrainian Wikipedia lacked well-written articles about the world's prominent entrepreneurs and innovators. Wikimarathon was our answer: a public contest for writing and translating those articles — run to fill a real coverage gap and to encourage the Ukrainian business community to contribute encyclopedic content.
How the contest worked
- Participants created new Ukrainian Wikipedia articles about notable entrepreneurs and innovators, or expanded existing stubs, under the theme «Inspirational stories of entrepreneurs».
- Every article and edit had to comply with Wikipedia's own rules; submissions built on machine translation were disqualified.
- A substance bar applied: at least 4,000 bytes contributed per article, and at least 40 substantive articles per worklist to qualify.
- A jury scored each article from 1 to 3 points on rule compliance, contribution volume, text structure and translation quality; the three highest totals won.
On the record
- When
- The 2025 edition ran April 1–30; winners were announced on May 10.
- Who could enter
- Ukrainian citizens aged 16 and over with a registered Ukrainian Wikipedia account.
- What it produced
- New and improved Ukrainian-language articles about global entrepreneurs — every qualifying worklist covered at least 40 substantive articles.
- Status
- A completed program. The contest is closed; we preserve its terms here as part of our record.
₴10,000 (UAH)
First prize
₴5,000 (UAH)
Second prize
₴2,000 (UAH)
Third prize
30 days
Contest window, April 1–30
Historical prize amounts in Ukrainian hryvnia, as published in the original contest terms. Shown as a factual record, not a current offer.
Initiative 02 · «Zvyzdobolid»
An anthology of modern Ukrainian futurism
Part of our social-responsibility work rather than any commercial engagement: «Zvyzdobolid» («Звіздоболід») is an anthology of modern Ukrainian futurism, presented by Ukrainian Wikipedians in honour of Mazepa and Bandera.
What it was
The anthology was co-authored by WikiBusines founders Bohdan Dubylovskyi and Roman Melnyk and presented on 7 September 2021 at the Interfax-Ukraine press centre in Kyiv. The presentation set out the book's editorial line and announced plans for translation into Chinese and Japanese.
For us it documents something simple: the people behind WikiBusines write and publish as Wikipedians and authors in their own right, not only on behalf of clients.
On the record
- When
- Presented 7 September 2021 at the Interfax-Ukraine press centre, Kyiv.
- Outcome
- A published anthology whose launch drew national wire-service coverage.
Initiative 03 · Wikipatrol
Reclaiming Wikipedia from vandalism and disinformation
A volunteer initiative co-founded by WikiBusines' Roman Melnyk: editors who monitor Ukraine-related entries and contest vandalism and Russian disinformation — with sources, edit by edit.
The daily work
- Daily volunteer work contesting Russian framing across language editions — English, German, Polish, French and Portuguese Wikipedia among them.
- Concrete editorial battles documented in the press profile — from the «DPR/LPR» entries to the article on the Cyborgs of Donetsk airport.
- The method is Wikipedia's own: sourced corrections under the project's rules — the same standards we apply in client work.
On the record
- Coverage
- Profiled in a long-form article by Rubryka on 25 February 2021.
- Why it matters
- Wikipedia is where the framing of Ukraine is decided for millions of readers; the patrol keeps entries anchored to reliable sources.
More independent coverage is collected on our press page.
Why this matters to clients
Community standing is earned, not bought
None of these projects existed to win business, and none of them can be purchased — which is exactly why they matter. Running a contest under Wikipedia's rules, publishing as Wikipedians and patrolling entries against disinformation taught us editor culture from the inside: what volunteer reviewers respect, what gets deleted, and why. That understanding shapes every client engagement — meet the team behind it and see what we will and will not promise in our guarantees.
Working with people who care about the ecosystem matters.
The same editors who ran these projects assess, write and defend pages for clients today. Meet them, or tell us what you need.