Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group/2022/Events & Activities

Workshops

During the year 2022, we were able to achieve our goals that we set and worked hard to achieve, the most notable of which was our collaboration with universities to educate students, improve their research skills, and equip them vital skills to contribute on Wikimedia projects. We conducted several workshops, virtual and physical, including:

Effat University

We provided virtual training workshop for 15 volunteers, and they worked on 15 articles.

Emirates Airline Festival of Literature

During the 14th edition of the festival, we presented two training sessions, with the participation of a group of interested people. several articles on various topics were published.

University of Sharjah

We provided a virtual training workshop for 20 volunteers, who worked on 20 articles.

American University in Dubai

We provided a physical training session for 17 students at the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Communication, and over the course of two days of training, 17 articles were published.

Zayed University

During Emirati Women's Day, our User Group organized a training session on Wikipedia for 18 students, they participated in editing articles about creative Emirati women.

Edit-a-thons

International Women's Day Edit-a-thon - House of Wisdom

We organized an edit-a-thon on the occasion of International Women's Day. 11 people attended, both physically and virtually, and 5 articles were published. A motivational video by Mariana Iskandar, CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation was shown during the edit-a-thon.

Ramadan Edit-a-thon

Our User Group held an edit-a-thon on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan, and one article was created collectively with the presence of 11 people, about the month of Ramadan in the United Arab Emirates.

Abu Dhabi International Book Fair Edit-a-thon

Our User Group held an edit-a-thon on the last day of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. One article about the Book Fair was edited collectively, with the presence of 8 people.

World Environment Day Edit-a-thon

The User Group held an edit-a-thon on World Environment Day. Several articles related to the environment were created in Arabic and English, with the presence of 10 people.

Emirati Women's Day Edit-a-thon

During Emirati Women's Day, our user group held an edit-a-thon for 18 students, they participated in editing articles about creative Emirati women.

Competitions

Wiki Loves Earth

The UAE Wikimedia User Group organized the UAE edition of the "Wiki Loves Earth" Photography Contest, an annual international competition that invites participants to submit images of natural heritage sites in the UAE via Wikimedia Commons. The contest's goals were to expand Wikimedia’s library of free and open images and to highlight protected natural areas and the nation's natural heritage. The User Group chose ten winners and awarded the top images submitted between May 1 and June 15, 2022.

Kateb Maktub Competition

Kateb Maktub initiative launched a competition to exponentially increase the number of Arab author pages and Arabic books on English Wikipedia. The month-long competition was starting 18 July and called on the public to create articles about Arabic authors and Arabic books in English. During the competition it was published of nearly 100 articles in English about Arab authors and Arabic books, with the participation of competitors from different Arab and foreign nationalities.

Wikipedia Writing Competition

In order to improve the Arabic content on Wikipedia, the Wikimedians of UAE User Group held a competition which focused on various topics including:

Tourism attractions
Historical and archaeological locations
Arab authors, Arabic novels, folktales,
Fictional characters

Conference

Wiki Arabia Conference

The Wikimedias of UAE Users Group organized the sixth edition of the WikiArabia Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from October 28 to 30, 2022. It was a three-day conference where individuals from the Arab world shared their perspectives, experiences, and ideas on numerous Wikimedia projects in the Arab world, including Wikipedia. This conference aided in creating a consistent policy for all Arabic-speaking Wikimedia projects.

There were 253 people in attendance at the conference overall, and 78 people from the Wikimedia community attended. The overall number of sessions in the conference program, which also included several training seminars, was 47. There were 36 presenters in all at the conference, including 10 female speakers and 26 male speakers.