The Wikipedia Education Program will start its operation by a pilot project in Cairo and based on the outcomes of the pilot, the program will then expand in different universities and geographies. In addition to examining the adaptability of courses taught in Arabic to using wikis as a platform for assignments and research. The main areas of pilot assessment include how the currents editors and admins of Arabic Wikipedia can sustain a large flow of content and new users, especially that Arabic Wikipedia has a flagged revision system.
Translations:
Translation is an effective approach of enriching Wikipedia content, whether by translation of existing Wikipedia articles in other languages, or by translation of other text. Based on leanings from previous experiences associated with Arabic language and Arabic Wikipedia in particular, we will avoid machine translation approaches, even those that incorporate the use of natural language processing, given the poor language results found so far, as well as the community disengagement that is associated with machine translation approaches.
Outreach
Outreach for Arabic Language focuses on expanding the number of Wikipedia contributors by promoting to how Wikipedia and free licensing works. Our approach relies on activating nodes of existing and new Wikipedia editors who are able to sustain different activities on the ground in their geographies, such as editing sessions, Arabic Wikipedia days, and other campus based campaigns. Like minded FOSS communities are potential supporters for hosting events and engaging with Wikipedia community. Outreach also includes GLAM activities, especially focusing on the release of digitized historic Arabic content, under CC license.
