Wikimedia MA User Group/Events

Main Page Main PageProjects ProjectsEvents EventsReports ReportsPolicies PoliciesMembers MembersDiscussion Discussion

2021

edit

WikiConvention francophone 2021 (20 - 21 November) - Online

edit

Anass Sedrati, Soukaina Abelhad and Brahim Faraji, made two presentations at the French-speaking Wiki-conference. Anass presented the results of the survey study that he made about regional hubs in the Arabic speaking region, while Soukaina and Brahim shared their experience in relation with the pilot education project that was conducted in the country during 2020.

WikiIndaba 2021 (5 - 7 November) - Online

edit

For the African conference, two group members have made presentations related to the movement's strategy. Anass Sedrati presented in a joint panel his research work about regional hubs implementation, while Reda Benkhadra introduced the state of Free Knowlegde in Africa.

WikiArabia 2021 (15 - 17 October) - Online

edit

The fifth edition of WikiArabia, organized by Wikimedia Algeria UG, saw notable participation from Wikimedia Morocco members, in several interesting panels and presentations. The interventions included “Reading Wikipedia in the classroom” by Soukaina Abelhad and Brahim Faraji, “Volunteering in the Wikimedia movement” by Anass Sedrati and Reda Benkhadra, and “How to motivate editors to contribute continuously” by Zahira Gormat as well as the group participation at the affiliates round table, represented by the president Reda Benkhadra.

Arctic Knot Conference 2021, (24 - 25 June) - (Online)

edit

For the third participation of the user group, and the second in the digital edition of the minority languages conference, Anass Sedrati and Reda Benkhadra, both user group members, shared a presentation entitled “How can editing contests support smaller Wikipedias?”. The presentation, inspired from work conducted in Morocco, aimed to introduce the audience to the importance of organizing contests in supporting smaller Wikipedias, even those still hosted in the incubator, to encourage more editors to participate in these versions.

A full recording of the session can be found on Youtube.

ContribuLing 2021, (3 - 4 June) - Online

edit

Wikimedia Morocco participated actively in organizing the first edition of the ContribuLing conference. This event, a collaboration between INALCO, Wikimedias (France & Morocco), BULAC and UCAM, aimed to offer members of linguistic resource platforms an opportunity to give presentations on their tools and workshops on their use that will enable would-be users to contribute. Anass Sedrati participated with the organization committee in different tasks, while Reda Benkhadra held a presentation about the Wikimedia Incubator.

Wikimedia Morocco was one of the first groups that joined the Wiki for Human Rights campaign organized by the Wikimedia Foundation and the OHCHR to raise awareness about the importance of documenting and advocating human rights.

  • Theme: The right to a healthy environment.
  • Contests in 4 languages: Arabic, French, Moroccan Arabic (Darija), Tachelhit.
  • 20 participants wrote 247 articles:
    • 145 in Arabic
    • 49 in French
    • 35 in Tachelhit
    • 18 in Moroccan Darija

2020

edit

Celtic Knot Conference, (9 - 10 July) - (Online)

edit

For the second participation of the user group in the conference related to minority languages, Anass Sedrati presented “digitally” a session entitled “Developing Wikis in local languages - From Offline to Online”, relating the experience of Moroccan Arabic Wikipedia, and the collaboration made at the group level to support it.

A full recording of the session can be found on Youtube.

WikiGap 2020, March - (Online)

edit

Originally, and similar to previous years (2018-2019), WikiGap was intended to be held in-person at the Swedish Embassy in Rabat. However, and even before deciding on the event date, the news of different restrictions coming with the pandemic obliged the group to change the plans.

After a careful consideration, the setup was radically changed for this year, and instead of having a physical one-day edit-a-thon and presentation, the event was switched instead to an online edit-a-thon held for a full month (march 2020). Even Though this setup was new and challenging, many people did participate in the event, and 31 new articles were created in several languages, about different Moroccan women. More details and figures about the virtual 2020 WikiGap in Morocco, can be found at this link.

Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom - Pilot Project

edit
Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom booket in Arabic, translated by the user group members

Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom is pilot project launched by the Education team at the Wikimedia Foundation, in collaboration with local user groups, to help teachers understand and leverage Wikipedia’s educational value. Through a localized set of tools and professional training opportunities, the project helps both educators and students to develop vital media and information literacy skills for the 21st century. Wikimedia Morocco was chosen as one of the three affiliates worldwide to collaborate in this project (alongside groups from Philippines and Bolivia).

Across all of Morocco, one hundred teachers received 36 hours of training led by two members of Wikimedia MA UG (Brahim Faraji and Soukaina Abelhad). The high level of participation in the pilot program is particularly notable given the unique and stressful demands teachers faced amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through 12 weeks of training, teachers participated in live webinars and asynchronous discussions as they explored how Wikipedia works, the importance of teaching information literacy across the curriculum, and how the Wikimedia community is working to close knowledge gaps. By the end of the training, teachers’ perception of the educational value of Wikipedia evolved, and they were able to incorporate it into their lesson plans.

Many user group members participated to support this project by answering the teachers questions about Wikipedia (either in Zoom training, or at the project Facebook group), in addition to the continuous support of the local coordinators. The material was highly appreciated by the teachers based on their answers on the post program survey (63% rated the course material as Excellent, 31% as good, and 6% average). Moreover, all of the participants in the Moroccan pilot project (100%) expressed the readiness to participate in any future training programs provided by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Wiki Loves Africa 2020 in Morocco (15 February - 31 March, extended to 15 April due to Covid-19)

edit

Strategy Salon 2020, (8 February) - Rabat (Morocco)

edit

To continue the Strategic discussion started in 2019, Wikimedia Morocco User Group organized a second Strategy related event, where 9 people met in Rabat to discuss the 13 draft recommendations that were open for community conversation so that they could give their input about them.

2019

edit

Wiki Indaba 2019, (8 - 10 November) - Abuja (Nigeria)

edit

Two members of Wikimedia Morocco User Group took part in WikiIndaba 2019 in Nigeria: Nassima Chahboun and Anass Sedrati. The latter delivered a full presentation about How to Strengthen Local African content, and participated in animating two panels: Local African Languages as well as Wikimedia 2030 Strategy.

Organization of WikiArabia 2019 — (4 - 6 October) - Marrakesh (Morocco)

edit

The WikiArabia regional conference was held between 4-6 October in the ocher city of Marrakesh, and was organized by Wikimedia Morocco User Group. With a total of 79 participants, local and international from the four corners of the globe, it focused on the theme of Wikimedia and local communities, with a rich program having covered the subject from different perspectives.

WikiConvention Francophone 2019, (6 - 8 September) - Brussels (Belgium)

edit

Two members of Wikimedia Morocco User Group took part in WikiConvention Francophone 2019 in Brussels:

Wikimania 2019, (14 - 18 August) - Stockholm (Sweden)

edit

Three members of Wikimedia Morocco User Group took part in Wikimania 2019: Ian Borim, Abderrahman Ait Ali,and Anass Sedrati. The latter was the volunteer coordinator for the conference, a panelist on the session Why indigenous languages matter more (now) and what we can do for them, and co-hosted a talk about Wikimedia and Arabic Sociolinguistics.

Strategy Salon 2019 — (13 July) - Mohammedia (Morocco)

edit

As part of the Wikimedia movement's 2030 strategy development process, a strategy salon was organized in Mohammedia (Morocco) on July 2019 and saw the participation of a dozen of Wikimedians living in Morocco, as well as Anass Sedrati, who works with the Wikimedia Foundation as a Strategy Liaison for the Arabic speaking communities, and is a member of the Wikimedia 2030 Advocacy Working Group. This event was an occasion to bring Moroccan contributors together for the first time.

Celtic Knot Conference, (4 - 5 July) - Penryn (United Kingdom)

edit

For the first participation of the User Group in the conference related to minority languages, Anass Sedrati presented three sessions:

Creative Commons Summit 2019, (9 - 11 May) - Lisbon (Portugal)

edit

Anass Sedrati, member of the User Group, took part in CC Summit 2019 and presented two sessions together with Strategy Working Group members:

Wikimedia Summit 2019, (29 - 31 March) - Berlin (Germany)

edit

2018

edit

Wikimedia Technical Conference, (22 - 26 October) - Portland (USA)

edit

Zakaria Oudrhiri represented the Moroccan and Arabic speaking community in the new rebranded edition of the Mediawiki related conference for Wikimedia developers. Zakaria facilitated two sessions: Applying the Architecture Principles and Standardizing frontend development tooling.

WikiConvention Francophone 2018, (5 - 7 October) - Grenoble (France)

edit

The User Group member and photographer Brahim Faraji participated in the Wikimedian French-speaking 2018 Conference as representative of the group. He attended several presentations and discussions related to Africa and to the movement as a whole.

13 August 2018

edit

Official Recognition of Wikimedia Tamazight User Group by the WMF Affiliations Committee, a partner group for Wikimedia Morocco.

Wikimania 2018, (18 - 22 July) - Cape Town (South Africa)

edit

Oslo Freedom Forum, (28 -30 May) - Oslo (Norway)

edit

Anass Sedrati participated at the Oslo Freedom Forum 2018 edition after being invited by Wikimedia Norge, in order to ensure the representativity of the languages he speaks. During that event, the Wikimedian delegation engaged discussions with human rights activists from Africa and MENA in order to advocate Wikimedia and its use in human rights.

Wikimedia Conference 2018, (18 - 22 April) - Berlin (Germany)

edit

Two members (Abderrahman Ait Ali and Anass Sedrati) from the user group took part of the 2018 Wikimedia conference.

They took part of different sessions from both the strategy track and the capacity building track, in addition to the thematic sessions with Arabic community, Berber and Darija language community with Algerian Wikimedians, and Iberian community. This conference was the first place where the idea of organizing WikiArabia 2019 in Morocco was brought into table.

WikiGap 2018, (7 March) - Rabat (Morocco)

edit

The WikiGap 2018 workshop was organised at the Swedish Embassy in Rabat. The workshop aimed to improve the Moroccan women's representation on Wikipedia, in order to reduce the existing gap in terms of encyclopedic content, compared to men.

During the day, the participants focused on creating articles about female personalities from politics and civil society.

Wiki Indaba 2018, (16 - 19 March) - Tunis (Tunisia)

edit

The second participation of Wikimedia Morocco in Wiki Indaba saw the presence of two board members: Reda Benkhadra and Anass Sedrati. It was an occasion to strengthen the links earlier with our continental fellows, and to discuss common challenges and eventual collaborations. During this edition, Anass held a presentation regarding Refugee projects in Wikimedia.

2017

edit

WikiDiversity Conference 2017 (3 - 5 November) - Stockholm (Sweden)

edit

For the second edition of Wikimedia Diversity Conference, Wikimedia Morocco was represented with three members: Anass Sedrati, Abderrahman Ait Ali and Zakaria Oudrhiri. The latter gave a talk about Reaching Diversity through Technology.


WikiArabia 2017 (23 - 25 October) - Cairo (Egypt)

edit

In the Arab regional conference WikiArabia 2017, Omar2040 represented Wikimedia Morocco, and participated in the open panel about Arab user groups. He made also an intervention introducing the Wikipedia Zero program, and the challenges it faces.

WikiConvention Francophone 2017 (19 - 21 October) - Strasbourg (France)

edit

Ismael Zniber participated in the French-speaking Wikimedia conference as representative of the group.

Wikimedia Conference 2017 (31 March - 2 April) - Berlin (Germany)

edit

Two members of the user group took part at the Wikimedia Conference 2017 in Berlin: Anass Sedrati (for the movement strategy track) and Saad Nabbi (for the capacity building).

Wiki Indaba 2017 (20 - 22 January) - Accra (Ghana)

edit

For its first continental participation, Wikimedia Morocco was represented in the WikiIndaba conference by its projects coordinator Anass Sedrati. Anass gave a presentation on The Situation of African Language Wikipedias together with the german expert Ingo Koll.

2016

edit

Wikipedia Training Workshop (26 November) - INPT - Rabat (Morocco)

edit

This event was the first event of the User Group to introduce Wikimedia projects to the general public in Morocco. It started by a number of presentations, before then concluding with a workshop to teach those interested how to edit Wikipedia.

  • 56 participants - ~200 pictures taken.

WikiConvention Francophone 2016 (19 - 21 August) - Paris (France)

edit

Two Wikimedia Morocco Board members Anass Sedrati, and Reda Benkhadra participated in the first meeting of the francophone community, and delivered a presentation on the linguistic challenges of French-speaking countries on Wikipedia based on the example of Morocco.

Wikimania 2016 (21 - 28 June) - Esino Lario (Italy)

edit

For the first participation of Wikimedia Morocco in Wikimania, the member Zakaria Oudrhiri gave a presentation about Wikipedia Zero project in Morocco, entitled In Morocco we do know that we have Wikipedia Zero to expose challenges that confront it.

eLearning Africa 2016 (24 - 26 May) - Cairo (Egypt)

edit

Zakaria Oudrhiri represented the Wikipedian community in the 11th International Conference on ICT for Developement, education & Taining eLearning Africa. Zakaria moderated a two hour workshop on learning to and understading the impact of quick edits to Wikipedia, where he presented initiatives in Africa, such as the Wikipedia Education Program (WEP) in Egypt.

  • 625 participants - 3050 pictures taken.

Wikimedia Conference 2016 (20 - 24 April) - Berlin (Germany)

edit

In its first appearance for the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin, Wikimedia Morocco User Group was represented by its president Reda Benkhadra.

WikiArabia2016, (24 - 28 March) - Amman (Jordan)

edit

The projects coordinator (Anass Sedrati) participated to the second edition of WikiArabia as representative of the group, and took part in the open discussion about Arab user groups.

2015

edit

6 October 2015

edit

Official recognition of Wikimedia MA User Group by the WMF Affiliations Committee

Producer Prize (Second half of 2015)

edit

Two members of the user group have participated in the producer prize organized on the Arabic version of Wikipedia, this semi-annual prize rewards contributors who have done important work on the encyclopedia during a specific period ; Omar Ghrida (Omar2040) and Mohamed Boualam (محمد بوعلام عصامي), this last won the third place (100 $ US).

  • 351 participants - 1715 pictures taken.

WikiArabia2015 (3 - 5 April) - Monastir (Tunisia)

edit

Four Moroccans have participed in the first regional conference about Wikipedia in the Arabic World : Anass Sedrati (Anass Sedrati), Ismael Zniber (Ismael zniber), Mohammed Mokhtari (محمد مختاري) and Zakaria Oudrhiri (زكريا), this last made an intervention about Developing Arabic Wikipedia and Sister Projects.

Moroccan Wikimedian Activities Before 2015

edit

2013

edit

Wikimania 2013 (7 - 13 August 2013) at Hong Kong

edit

Watch session on YouTube

Zakaria Oudrhiri (زكريا) has represented Morocco at the 9th edition of the international conference Wikimania, and gave a presentation titled "A Proposal for Progressive Disclosure in Wikipedia".

Wikipedia WorkShop (26 - 27 January) - Amman (Jordan)

edit

Zakaria Oudrhiri (زكريا) participated in the Wikipedia WorkShop organized in Amman.

2012

edit

Wikipedia WorkShop (21 - 22 October) - 6th of October City (Egypt)

edit

Mohamed Amarochan (Mohamed Amarochan) took part at Wikipedia WorkShop organized in 6th of October City.