Grants:TPS/Reem Al-Kashif/Wikimania/2014/Report

Welcome back from Wikimania 2014!

Participant

Reem Al-Kashif

Arabic Wikipedia

Outcome

My main concern was training new Wikipedians since I am a web and campus ambassador in Wikipedia’s Arab World Education Program. I did not really know that there are many education programs in many countries. I got to hear a lot about the experiences of participants in and managers of these programs. This gave me new ideas about how to train students and to encourage them to edit Wikipedia. One thing I learned about keeping students motivated is that I have to add the “cool factor” to their participation in Wikipedia. This can happen through appreciating their work in blogs, providing moral support, and giving gifts.

Also, I benefitted the most from workshops about how to incorporate different kinds of assignments in Wikipedia. I learned that diversity in assignments turned out to be a good thing for Wikipedia.

Furthermore, I wanted to present our Program to the Wikimedia community, so I made a poster that explains Wikipedia’s Arab World Education Program. It was shown in the Fountain Room in the conference’s second day. I also spoke about our experiences in the Program in many workshops. I found out that many Wikipedians from Serbia, UK, Canada, and Switzerland are interested in collaborating with the Program. Preparation for two projects with is ongoing now. We have already had an online post-conference meeting to discuss one of these projects. I have so many ideas for tons of initiatives, but I am working on them one by one.

As a translator, I was interested in taking part in developing machine proofing of Wikipedia articles. I attended workshops and sessions that gave me an idea about what is going on right now and how I can participate.

The conference was also a great chance to meet with fellow Arab Wikipedians in an Arab meetup to discuss many issues related to user groups and WikiArabia.

Finally, throughout the conference I got to know about Wiki projects and initiatives that I have never heard of. Some of them were really interesting and they could be a success, if implemented in Egypt. One of the main projects that I’m working on how to use them in Egypt is WikiLibrary.

Here are some links to outcomes of Wikimania that also serve as seeds for future projects:

1.Open Curriculum Project in Egypt

2.Using Social Media to recruit new editors

Connections

I met a huge number of energetic and motivated people, some of them are:

Sherif Mansour

Miroslav Loci

Ivana Madzarevic

Jake Ocassi

Dr. James (from Canada)

Nurunnaby Chowdhury Hasive

Anything else

This was my first Wikimania and it really gave me a huge motivation to continue what I am doing. It opened my eyes to new ideas that helped me in my journey in the Education Program.

Finally, I am much more attached to the logic behind Wikimedia projects now because the Wikicommunity felt like home. The conference made me feel like everything we do is appreciated and that we do make a change.