Meet UAE Wikipedians and learn how they enrich Wikipedia

Wikipedia is the world’s largest multilingual encyclopedia of free content, co-authored by users. The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization that runs numerous Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia. The UAE user group aims to enrich Arabic content in Wikimedia Foundation projects.

Isobel Abulhoul, CEO of Emirates Literary Foundation, told Gulf News that since the establishment of the Emirates Group in 2021, uploading content about literature on Wikipedia, whether it is about authors, books or any other relevant content in Arabic, has cost a lot effort. . The WikiArabia conference, which just concluded at the Mohammed bin Rashid Library in Dubai, was the catalyst for increasing Arabic content on all Wikimedia platforms.

“The number of articles has increased by 500 percent. So this is a huge amount of money managed by the UAE-based Wikimedia group,” Abulhoul said.

The group is also heavily outsourcing its outreach with the education sector.

“We’ve been training all the major universities on how to be a wiki guy, how to upload an article, how to get approved, etc. It’s an ongoing activity that we do throughout the year, and in combination we have in the article This success and our educational programs are the reasons why the Wikimedia Foundation has allowed us to host the 2022 Wiki Arabian Conference,” Abulhoul noted.

Talking about the importance of the initiative and why the ELF supports it, Abulhoul said: “If you think about Arabic, which is one of the six languages ​​recognized as an official language of the United Nations, as you know, has become a very important language.

“Over 300 million people worldwide speak Arabic and that’s what we owe them, they deserve equal access to Arabic content so they don’t have to always turn to English, French or other languages ​​when they find them there language when they are their mother tongue. So again, this is the driving force behind this incredible initiative by the Emirates Literature Foundation.”

Dania Droubi, Director of Education and Support Services at ELF and Head of Wikimedia Activities at the UAE User Centre, said the organisation is growing every day as more and more users want to be part of it.

When asked how the group ensures that misinformation is not uploaded to Wikipedia entries, she said: “Those who want to be a part of [the group] Training is required. They must understand their responsibilities for what they are doing and contribute to the entire Wiki Arab project and published articles. We have a set of rules and regulations in place to ensure that any misinformation is screened out. “

The UAE User Group is one of 143 global Wikimedia user groups dedicated to empowering and engaging people to develop well-sourced free knowledge and share this knowledge with the world using Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia.

Droubi said the group is very active, especially in initiating and implementing local partnerships to increase the number of contributors to Wikimedia projects.

“They have set an ambitious goal of increasing the number of Arabic Wikipedia pages about literature, and so far they have seen a 500% increase in less than two years. They did it in a short period of time. The work they are doing is increasing the historical and cultural representation of the region in the Arabic-language Wikimedia project, which is very important to our goal of making sure that everyone, everywhere has access to free knowledge,” she said. added.

The last WikiArabia conference was actually held in Algeria during the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is the first post where people have come together, and all Wiki user groups from the Arab world and beyond have participated… When you bring everyone together, key decision makers can Countries lead their own Wikimedia groups,” Abulhoul said.

“It’s important to give them the opportunity to express their opinions. It’s important that they have the opportunity to shape the future of Wiki Arabia, that’s why this conference is so important, we’re honoured that this is the first time in the Gulf, in the UAE, ‘ she added.

The panelists who met enhanced their knowledge of how to localize Wikimedia’s software features into Arabic. Students learned the basics of editing on Wikipedia and introduced participants to the features and tools of the Foundation’s Growth Package to encourage newcomers to edit on Wikipedia.

Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander also answered questions from the Arab Wikimedia community.