Option 1: Shared Experience: What is one way you shared something from your experience with your community (either locally or globally), after the event?
The best way to tell our community about something learned and/or experienced is to record it in writing. For this reason, I have recorded my Wikimania 2023 experiences in Turkish at tr.wikimedia.org. While our local Wikimedia sites are sufficient to share with the local community, it would be much more useful to write a Diff post to share with the global community. For this reason, I translated the Turkish report I wrote to my local community to Diff in English as well. Thus, not only after Wikimania 2023, but even after many years, I will be able to see for myself what I experienced then. I will be able to compare myself to previous years. In addition to all these, I explained my Wikimania 2023 experience to the participants in all details at the session on August 29, 2023, where we held one of our regular meetings called WikiTuesday.
The following headings are included in this report that I wrote:
Overview
Sessions
Strengthening Collaboration among Turkic-Speaking Countries on Wikimedia Projects: Sharing Experiences and Proposing a Hub Implementation by Mehman and HakanIST
Let's Connect x LDWG Learning Clinics: Communication skills for collaborative leadership by Jan-Bart de Vreede, Let's Connect, Leadership Development Working Group, Nada Alfarra and Chinmayee Mishra
Changemaker's toolbox - brainstorming introductory resources to campaigning and advocacy by Daria Cybulska
How to expand the Education Program Partnership in your local community by Başak Tosun
From State Censorship to State Sponsorship: How We Organized a Seven-Month Edit-a-Thon with a State Agency by Nodir Ataev and Zarnigora Ataeva
A tree where roots meet: Wikimedians of Turkic Languages User Group by Kurmanbek (Caner)
During the Wikimania 2023 Singapore, I met with a lot of new Wikimedians. I met with Taufik, who is the first Wikimedian of the year, whom I met at the Wikimedia Summit 2022 Berlin. In the following days, we started to meet new people and talk to them about collaborations and joint projects. We even got together with my Wikimedian friends, whom I had met before, and exchanged information about current developments about our work.
Tofeiku - We had a chat about what the Wikimedian of the Year was like and current projects in our communities.
Mrb Rafi - The friend I met from the Let's Connect program and with whom I brought the Wikipedia 101 project to life. We made various evaluations about the current status of the project and localization efforts.
TheAafi - The friend I met from the Let's Connect program and with whom I brought the Wikipedia 101 project to life. We talked about the projects we can do in the future.
Mehman - After Wikidata Istanbul, we met again in Singapore with my friend Mehman, with whom I took part in projects at WMTurkic and CEE. We shared our views with each other about the future plans of Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2023 Tbilisi and WMTurkic.
Eugene Ormandy - A Wikimedian friend I met from Japan for the first time. We are considering joint work on Wikipedia Student Clubs together (details below)
Nataev - We talked to him about how the Uzbek Wikipedia has risen so fast and how we can do similar projects in Turkish community. We have also been instrumental in organizing the Wikimedia Collectors Group event with him.
Suyash.dwivedi - I had met before at the Wikimedia Summit 2022, but had not had the opportunity to chat. This time I was able to chat and learn about the Commons Photographers User Group from him.
Malikxan - Even though we are in the same community, it was the first time we met with Malikxan. After that, we thought about the youth work we could do together in the future.
Janbery - We talked with Jan, whom we started working with in the CEE Youth Group, about what we can do as a project.
TRistovski-CEEhub - We met face to face for the first time with Toni, who guided us in the CEE Youth Group. We held a meeting about details such as how we can create an effective campaign for the CEE Youth Group.
Gunarta (WMID) - I met Gunata, one of the graphic designers of the conference. Since we are both graphic designers, we exchanged information about our experiences in designing conferences.
Toghrul R - We talked about tools and current tool developments in Turkish and Azerbaijani Wikipedia.
Tjaiwan - While examining the poster of my own community in the poster session, Tjaiwan also came and examined our poster. After chatting for a while, "How to edit Wikipedia of Paiwan?" I remembered that I attended the session named and we chatted a little more about his project.
Malikxan, Eugene Ormandy and me (Kurmanbek)Together with Eugene Ormandy from Japan attending Wikimania 2023, we are considering declaring the Wikipedia Student Clubs at our universities as sister clubs. In September 2023, we will start working after the completion of the establishment of my club at my university.
Toni and I thought about ways to make the Wikimedia CEE Youth Group more engaging and increase engagement for young people in the CEE region. I stated that this can happen with an effective campaign. I also stated that I can act as a bridge between WikiVibrance and CEE Youth Group, and that both organizations can help each other.
I told Suyash.dwivedi that in my personal life, besides being a graphic designer, I am also a professional photographer. Then I said that I had news from the Commons Photographers User Group and that I wanted to join. He welcomed this. I will be part of the community as soon as possible.
With Tofeiku, we reconsidered our project that we've been thinking about since last year. According to the project; The year 2024 is the 60th anniversary of the relations between Türkiye and Malaysia. For this purpose, we are planning to organize a joint edit-a-thon as Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey and Wikimedia Community User Group Malaysia. Our processes of expressing mutual views on this issue continue.
My presentation took place on August 18, 2023. This presentation, which was only a 5-minute lightning talk, was my first international presentation. I performed my presentation in exactly 5 minutes in a very comfortable way on the stage where I went out with the excitement of being the first. I was also more and more excited that the biggest stage was given to me. In this presentation I made, I gave information about how my community, Wikimedians of Turkic Languages User Group, was founded, what kind of support we currently provide to our members and our future activities.
I think there were approximately 30-40 people in the hall at the time of my presentation. There were also some online listeners. All this excitement is my first international presentation and I am very happy to have successfully completed my presentation despite the crowd. From now on, I will be able to present much more decisively, having overcome this initial excitement. I would like to thank the Wikimania 2023 team for giving me this opportunity.
Turkic Wikimedians poster and me. Taken by Tjaiwan
Turkic Wikimedians at closing party
I would like to say that I did not leave empty-handed from all the sessions I attended above.
First of all, in Mehman's presentation, I got quite a wealth of ideas about the problems of other Hubs and how they are progressing. I also came to the conclusion that this job is a team job.
I have come to the conclusion that the recommendations given in the session hosted by Let's Connect should definitely be owned by users who are actually active in user groups. For example, adopting strategies and understanding and empathizing with other members' needs are one of them.
In the session called Changemaker's toolbox, I learned what to pay attention to when making an effective campaign. I learned that the campaigns do not only end with copyright, but may vary depending on the region where the target audience lives, their competencies and the like.
Başak Tosun's session was very close to me since I took place as a student and Wikipedian in the Wikipedia Education Program conducted in Türkiye. In the presentation, information was given about the steady progress of the education program in Türkiye and its achievements. I would also like to state that I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to closely observe what is being said, since they also carry out an education program at my own university.
The presentation of Nataev and Nataeva actually impressed me a lot. Because the path from a semi-disabled Wikipedia to a community that organizes such large organizations is a concrete example of success. It is also very nice and exciting that they care about young people so much and organize Wikicamps for them and events with motivating gifts. It is also very admirable that they provide content that will record the cultures of their own countries in internet history with a Creative Commons license. We should definitely organize events of this scale in Türkiye, and we should carry out activities that will enable young people to contribute more to Wikimedia projects.
Thank you to Gisca and Butch for answering any of our questions before and after the conference. Also I would also like to thank the Wikimedia Foundation for providing such an opportunity.
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My presentation file
Turkic Wikimedians
Wikimedians from Türkiye
A photo from my presentation
Turkic Wikimedians poster and me. Taken by Tjaiwan
Turkic Wikimedians at closing party
