Grants:Simple/Applications/Wikimedians of the Levant/2020
- Application or grant stage: grant in progress
- Applicant or grantee: grantee
- Amount requested: USD 12,490
- Amount granted: USD 12,490
- Funding period: April 1 2020 - March 31 2021
- Midpoint report due: October 16 2020
- Final report due: May 1 2021
Background edit
Annual Plan edit
- Link to any outside relevant document around your annual plan
Budget Plan edit
Strategic plan edit
- Link to your strategic plan if you have one
Introduction edit
Wikimedians of the Levant is a user group for Wikimedia volunteers in Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. It was established in May 2015, as the fourth UG in the Arabic-speaking countries, and has since grown to perhaps one of the leading affiliates in the MENA region. With 55 active members, near weekly activities and a successful grant record, Wikimedia Levant has grown in terms of structure and organization to the point of its very first Simple APG application.
The four countries of the Levant share a mediocre level of economy and income (ranking within the range of #78 to #118, globally), which, consequently, places them as part of the Global South as well as among the so-called emerging communities of Wikimedia. This does not reflect well on the corresponding content of the region on Wikimedia Projects: for example, English Wikipedia has over 60,000 pages under the label "Switzerland", a country populated by eight million people, but only 6,000 entries under "Jordan", (a country with slightly higher population and a similar land area). Additionally, Arabic, the native language of the region, suffers from a severe content gap relative to the number of its native speakers. With about one million articles, the Arabic Wikipedia version has a single entry per almost 300 speakers; in comparison, the same ratio in the case of German would be a Wikipedia page per 33 speakers.
In order to bridge these gaps and create knowledge equity, Wikimedia Levant aspires to support access to free knowledge within and about the region of the Levant. Our Strategic plan for 2020, the first of its kind, consists of three broad programs that we believe may help us achieve this goal: 1. Capacity Building: to upscale the community in both number and skill, ensuring a sustainable knowledge transfer and potential for further future scaling; 2. Content: to improve and expand Wikimedia projects, thus sticking to our primary goal; 3. Education: to create long-term partnerships and outreach that support us in achieving our key mission.
Programs edit
Capacity Building & Development
Capacity Building
As one of Wikimedia 2030 nine thematic areas, capacity building is a vital component of our Movement's future. In the past few years, Wikimedia Levant has successfully organized events around outreach, content and community: however, unless we focus on upscaling our volunteer skills and abilities, we are still exposed to a danger of losing years of institutional knowledge each time a veteran member withdraws from the group. The new capacity program will launch our first ever training of trainers, a modest campaign of workshops that aspires to build and motivate a small network of qualified Wikimedians and potential future leaders of the user group. With a small amount of planned workshops, the Program will keep realistic expectations and focus on a single set of skills (likely on online editing and/or healthy community rather than organizational capacity).
Activities
- Training of trainers
- Community Health awareness
Objectives
- Build a core network of capable new Wikimedians who can in turn train, encourage and recruit others
- Set up a convenient and repeatable process to onboard and welcome members
- Create advanced learning guides for Wikipedia editing and Wikiproject site policies.
Metrics
- Host 3 workshops
- Train 50 new editors
- Equip 5 qualified trainers
Community Development
Approaching its fifth year, Wikimedia Levant is growing into an experienced user group and a leading affiliate in the Arabic-speaking region. Growth, however, should be primarily measured not with a number of projects or achievements, but (to quote Movement Strategy) with people. Volunteers make up the true core of any Wikimedia community, and we can't hope to grow without a growing, healthy and motivated volunteer base. The Community Development Program aspires to meet this growth in two manners. First, from an internal perspective, we will have more open communication channels through more regular online meeting and an in-person meeting. Second, from an external one, we will be extending our outreach through awareness lectures/workshops, social media activity and recruiting campaigns to increase our active members by one and a half more.
Activities
- Annual In-person Meeting (Amman, Jordan)
- Social media outreach
- Medical Student Association workshop (Alexandria, Egypt)
- Syrian refugee event (Turkey)
- ACOR events (Jordan)
- Monthly meetings (online)
Objectives
- Create a norm of open and active communication channels for the Levant community
- Scale up the user group in size and capacity
Metrics
- Recruit 15 long term Wikimedia participants
- Increase user group members by 50% (up to 80 in total)
- Increase meetings engagement to an average of +10 attendees
Content
As part of Wikimedians of the Levant's vision and objectives, bridging content gaps is a particular priority. The Content Creation Program focuses on bridge the content gap in articles, images and data. This program will be targeted at major projects; Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata, and interested in the culture, history, architecture, monumental structures and gender gap.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is, first and foremost, our primary Wikiproject and the long term focus of Wikimedia Levant activities, and our plan is incomplete without it included. We will launch a variety of editing campaigns and competitions with a focus around bridging content gaps on Arabic Wikipedia, especially those related to the Levant region but also on a broader level. We will host small Wikipedia celebrations to get editors together and keep them motivated as editors around the year, while also employing competitions and online collaborations to improve content, raise team spirit and retain our editor base.
Activities
- Levant editing contest
- Engineering editing contest
- For Wikipedia Initiative
- Arabic Wikipedia Anniversary (Jordan & Palestine)
- Wikipedia Anniversary (Jordan & Palestine)
- Arabic Language workshop (Al-Khalil, Palestine)
Objectives
- Improve Arabic Wikipedia content related to the Levant region.
- Improve Arabic Wikipedia content related to Arabic Language.
- Motivate members to participate in editing campaigns and stay as active editors.
Metrics
- Number of participants: 50
- Number of articles to improve: 200
- Number of articles to create: 200
Gender gap
Within Wikimedia Levant's vision for organizing Wikimedians who share similar interests, challenges [and] needs, it's extremely important to eliminate gender bias as far as possible in our community. Our user group already has a nearly equal percentage of male to female members, but this balance is yet to be fairly represented in either our online editing community or our content. Our means to contribute to mitigating the gap and raising awareness include gender gap partnerships and seasonal events with international embassies as well as organizing Arab women collaborations across the region.
Activities
- Wiki Girls
- Wiki Gap (Jordan & Palestine)
Objectives
- Raise public awareness of the severe gender gap in Arabic Wikipedia content
- Motivate new individuals and organization to join the campaign to bridge gender gap
- Improve Arabic Wikipedia content to bridge gender gap.
Metrics
- Number of participants: 40
- Number of articles to improve: 50
- Number of articles to create: 50
Commons
Wikimedia Commons severely lacks content about the Levant region in general. Reasons include: lack of photographer community, scarcity of people able to afford photography equipment, low copyright awareness and disconnection from the Commons community and its regulations. Our goals from holding the editing contest for this year would be to retain a Commons/Arabic Wikipedia photographer community through awareness campaigns and outreach, and to increase the impact of the photography competitions by requiring a minimum quota of images to be used in actual articles and Wikiproject pages.
Activities
- Wiki Loves Monuments
- Wiki Loves Earth
- Wiki Loves Translation (photo translation contest)
Objectives
- Retain a photographer community contributing visual content to the Levant.
- Add more images about the local natural heritage and scenic landscape on Levant region.
- Increase number of translated photos (medical pictures, maps, diagrams ..etc)
- Increase impact by expanding use of images in articles.
Metrics
- 900 uploads for all photo contests
- At least 10% of photos used in Wikimedia websites
- 5 long term participants
WikiData
To keep up the pace with the wider Wikimedia Movement, it's necessary to devote attention and resources to the leading sister WikiProject: that is, WikiData. In this area, Wikimedia Levant focuses on two main aspects: 1. Holding local WikiData training that can increase the number of active contributors in Arabic language; and 2. Contributing content relevant to the user group's scope of work. For 2020, we will proceed our previous effort to build a core WikiData community in the region.
Activities
- Workshops in Palestine and Jordan
Objectives
- Recruit a core Wikidata community in the Levant
- Improve Wikidata content related to the Levant region.
Metrics
- 20 participants
- 3 long-term contributors
Education
The Education Program has long proved as one of Wikimedia Levant's most successful endeavours. It services a multitude of purposes all at once: delivering content, building capacity, raising awareness and recruiting volunteers. After four years of continuous activity across Palestine and Jordan, the program proves successful and sustainable enough to justify its place as one of the three major focuses for the user group's first Simple APG. In our 2020 annual plan, we are looking to engage with more educational institutions in both Palestine and Jordan thanks to a stable, easily accessible funding.
While the program's goals will remain, as in previous success stories, to generate content and build capacity, we are looking to introduce another, new success metric: to create an effect and sustainable process of implementing Education Programs. This goal will be realized through an information portal to guide Education Program (and potentially students) through the entire organizational process. This will ensure that we capture our institutional memory as a group, a purpose in line with the Wikimedia 2030 Movement Strategy.
Palestine
Objectives
- Increase student awareness of Wikipedia policies and how they can contribute
- Build sustainable partnerships with educational institutions
- Set up an effective, self-sustaining process to guide new Education Program officers
Metrics
- Train 100 students
- Create 200 articles
Jordan
Objectives
- Increase student awareness of Wikipedia policies and how they can contribute
- Build sustainable partnerships with educational institutions
- Set up an effective, self-sustaining process to guide new education program officers
Metrics
- Train 40 students
- Create 50 articles
Grant Metrics Reporting edit
Metrics, targets and results: grants metrics worksheet here.
Midterm report edit
Program story edit
Please link to one program story that showcases your organization's achievements during the reporting period.
Program Progress edit
Capacity Building & Development
Starting from a vision focused on capacity building as a main theme of the Wikimedia 2030 Strategy, Wikimedia Levant aimed to upscale its volunteer capacity and capabilities through skills training, community health awareness and community development. We have achieved the most significant success in the latter two goals: growing into an enormous membership base of almost a hundred volunteers, and achieving the significant milestone of buildin a Code of Conduct. Training has taken place through various group events and editing workshops, but not so much to outside audiences.
Membership
In this activity year, Wikimedia Levant set up a systematic Membership application process where membersihp has to be renewed every year. From 66 members, in April 1st, when the annual plan started, Wikimedia Levant has grown to have 99 active members (as of October 15th, 2020). This already meets one of our annual goals, to grow into up to a total of 80 active members. Activity and engagement has also skyrocketted, with regular Wikimedia Levant meetings receiving an attendance of up to two dozen participants. The largely developed community of the user group practically showed in the greatly boosted results of our activities and programs.
Administration & structure
Several improvements and developments in Wikimedia Levant administration took place this year to respond to its increasing membership and needs. Transparency and openess in discussion spaces have been adhered to by restricting all major user group discussions to dedicated spaces on Metawiki, with examples of major discussions including the Arab Wikimedians Committee status and the major topic of restructuring.
Towards the annual elections, which usually take place in July/August, a proposal for restructuring the user group was put forward. In the past, our user group tried out several administrative models that yielded different results: ranging from zero structure to a system of dedicated teams each active in a certain area. This year, however, and after a restructuring discussion spanning from 7 July to 5 September 2020, Wikimedia Levant officially adjusted its bylaws to properely separate between decision-making ('legislative') and executive responsibilities.
The user group is now being governed by an elected board of five members (including a Chief Coordinator, Treasurer and Secretary), with bylaws allowing for the selection or hiring of an Executive Director, if the needs comes up. This new structure has been providing an enormous room for proper delegation, governance and organized work in an user group with a circa hundred members.
We developed the administrative structure of our group: Five years after the founding of Wikimedians of the Levant, we made the second set of fundamental changes to our Bylaws since they were first introduced in mid-2017. These changes were significant because they responded to the emerging needs of the group, resulting from its growth in terms of members and its scope of work. A proposal has been put forward to separate the executive and organizational roles in the structure of the user group. The changes were proposed (according to the open governance adopted by Wikimedia Levant) in an open discussion space, where conversations went on for two months, receiving a total of about 7,000 words in comments and feedback.
The adoption of these changes led to a major step in the group’s governance and professional work. The new structure coincided with a steady increase in the number of registered members during this year from about 50 members at the beginning of the year to more than 100 members at the end of the year. This increase, expectedly, reflected on the higher participation across the user group's events, activities and meetings, as the attendance of the regular monthly meeting became much larger, and the activities witnessed a larger distribution of responsibilities in organizational and operational matters.
Community Health
During this year and as part of our annual plan to increase community health awareness, Wikimedia Levant created its first official Code of Conduct. Following a very real need that hasn't been sufficiently addressed for a while, the Code of Conduct was first drafted on 16 May 2020. It took nearly two months of online discussions and multiple user group meetings to approve the final version on 12 July. Since then, consenting to adhere to the code became a requirement for all those who apply to be Wikimedia Levant members, and an increasing number of members have gestured to publicly sign the Code.
Online lectures
- GLAM lecture
Presented an introduction about GLAM partnerships and work to the members of Wikimedia Levant. The presentation included a general overview of GLAM, examples of global partnerships and a walkthrough of the GLAM activities organized by Wikimedia Levant. About ten members attended and engaged.
- Hamleh Center
Hamleh Center is an Arab Center for Social Media Development, the lectures held on 12 July and 16 July 2020 by using Live on Hamleh Facebook page, it's about principles of editing on Arabic wikipedia and content policies. The number of participants who have viewed the lectures about 2,000 viewer. The lectures coordinators are: Alaa Najjar and Farah Mustaklem.
- Raje'e Center
Raje'e Center is a center that conducts research and awareness campaigns of Palestinian heritage. Upon their request, Wikimedia Levant conducted a two-hour workshop in basic Wikipedia training for their staff on 20 May 2020. The workshop was attended by over a dozen members, with lots of engagement. They expressed interest in following up and were offered help further on, but haven't been in touch again so far.
Content
Wikimedia Levant's Content program was the most impacted and, yet, the most positively affected by the global pandemic of COVID-19. Leading to the cancellation or virsualization of nearly a dozen in-person events and workshops, the pandemic still proved to the advantage of engagement in our online editing workshops and competitions. We received unprecedented numbers of engagement thanks to our growing user base and were able to participate considerably in community events and occasions. Content produced by the user group members during this years have generally been more focused on quality rather than quantity (e.g. producing a dozen featured/good articles in a single event and improving large amounts of existing articles). Content continues to spark the interest of our volunteers as the chief part of Wikimedia Projects thay they're passionate about, and have been successfully adapting to the changing conditions (despite sharp budget alterations it has caused).
Wiki Females project
Wiki Females is a project that launched in april 2020, to be a comfort space for the girls in Arabic Wikipedia and supportive project mainly for female's content And its related topics in health, medicine, cosmetology, care, children, cultural and social aspects, etc. it aims to supporting and encouraging girls in editing, and to be contact each others. the results of this project:
- creating 63 Articles from zero.
- 15 editors participated.
The project coordinates are: Baraa zama'reh, Areen abu rumman and Donia Domiaty.
For more information you can click here
Earth Day's edit-a-thon
In celebration of Earth Day which was on April 22nd, the Wikimedia Levant launched an edit-a-thon to create articles related to environmental issues and climate change. The day began on April 19 and continued until after the occasion, to allow participants to complete their articles.
there was related articles available in English, which were collected in a Google Sheet to make it easy to access and choose the right one for each participant: Environment and Climate Change Articles.
the results of this celebration Day were:
- creating 51 Articles from zero.
- improved 4 Articles.
- 16 editors participated.
The program coordinates are: Mervat salman, Alaa Najjar and Abbad Diraneyya.
For more information you can click here
ACOR's edit-a-thon
On 13 July 2020, ACOR held Jordanian Heritage Edit-a-thon and it was completely online, the goal was to write, edit, translate, and add citations to articles related to cultural heritage in Jordan. it was collaborating organizations (Wikimedia Levant, the Jordan Open Source Association, and the American Center of Oriental Research),that will seek to improve this free, open-access digital resource for anyone who wishes to learn more about Jordan’s past and present.
Even though they cannot gather to research and edit in person, the Open Jordanian Heritage team plans to set up a virtual space, via Slack and Zoom, to train participants in editing Wikipedia articles using open-access library and archival resources. Experienced editors were be available throughout the day to troubleshoot technical and content questions. and all of participate can be duration of time that he/she choosen.
You can find the event on the outreach dashboard. The results of this edit-a-thon Focused on: 26 editor, 24 created articles, 43 improved articles, one photo uploaded on Commons and 26.9k words added.
The edit-a-thon coordinates are: Abbad Diraneyya, Areen Abu Rumman and Raya Sharbin.
For more information you can click here
Levantine Photos compeition
Levantine Photos compeition was held on 24 April 2020 and continued throughout Ramadan until 23 may 2020. to enrich Arabic Wikipedia articles with pictures on Levantine countries, where participants compete to add images from Wikimedia Commons or upload new images to Arabic Wikipedia articles which related to the Levantine countries:Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Lebanon. the results of this compeition:
- 8 editors participated.
For more information click here.
Arabic Wikipedia's Day edit-a-thon
As a part of Arabic community, Wikimedia Levant participate at 16th Arabic Wikipedia's Day edit-a-thon, Which is an annual Arabic Wikipedia event, it Happened on the first saturday after 9th of it (date of establishing Arabic Wikipedia),The duration of the edit-a-thon was 24 hours editing on Arabic Wikipedia to help in improving Articles. This year it was on 11th of July, with participating a large number from Wikimedia Levant members. Where they were organised on teams from a month before to work and improve articles. (You can get more details from here in Arabic)
The Aim was:
- having a new five (5) Featured Articles on Arabic Wikipedia.
- improve twenty (20) Seeds in different sections to The perfect article.
- Translate Twenty (20) Pictures from Commons to Arabic Language.
- Adding Categories and templates to twenty (20) Articles.
After finishing this day, The result was:
- Four (4) Featured Articles.
- Six (6) Good Articles.
- Three (3) Featured Lists.
- Twenty five (25) Pictures translated in Commons to Arabic Language.
- two (2) Seeds articles improved to The perfect Article.
- General editing to Arabic Wikipedia like Bashkir Language.
Morocco's Day participation
On 18 July 2020, Wikimedia Levant participated in the third Moroccan Wikipedia day that held by Wikimedia MA User Group, which is an annual Moroccan Wikipedia event, in which all Moroccan editors (and others) write articles on Morocco. This Day aims to enrich the articles related to Morocco. We aim to encourage others to work on Arabic Wikipedia and publish articles as much as possible. so in this day we formed a team from 7 editors who working on developing "The Walls of Marrakesh" article to be perfect article and participate.
Wiki Ladies online workshop
Within Wikimedia Levant's vision for organizing Wikimedians who share similar interests, challenges and needs, it's extremely important to eliminate gender bias as far as possible in our community. The idea to have an InterWiki Women Collaboration was born during Wikimania 2017 at 100wikidays Meetup in Montreal, which will help to fill gender gap and enrich Arabic wikipedia content and create articles that correspond With the policies of Wikipedia, this collaborative workshop was launched in its first edition in 2020 as an extension of the idea of global wiki women's collaboration. workshop held on 1 September 2020 and ended on 21 September 2020, with the end of the InterWiki Women Collaboration 2020.
The workshop aims to:
- learn volunteers on the content translation tool and how to use it.
- How to edit on Wikipedia.
- learn how adding information and documenting it with reliable references using citation templates.
- Building knowledge bridges between new and old editors.
- Translating and developing many biographical women articles and health sector.
- spirit of cooperation and team-work between volunteers.
The results included contributed by 11 volunteers who created 17 articles. The workshop coordinates are: Mervat, Nanour Garabedian and Nada kareem22.
For more information you can click here
Alam Al-Ma'refa workshop
This workshop is part of Wikimedia Levant activities within the Arabic Wikipedia Content, and it aims to:
- Developing the list of Alam Al-Ma'refa article and nominating such as the Featured lists.
- Training group members on basic editing skills such as Reliable sources, Citing sources and Citation Style documentation.
- Providing participants with the skills to upload images locally on Arabic Wikipedia and globally on wiki Commons.
in Workshop that Hold periodic online meetings on Jitsi Meet to communicate with the participants, it took 3 months started from August to October 2020.The participants were divided into two teams to make the work more easier and effective. The results included contributed by 11 volunteers. Page size exceeded 317٬117 bytes. The list was nominated for review on 13 October 2020. The workshop coordinators are: Michel Bakni and Mervat. For more information you can click here
Education
Our Education program was severely impacted by the global pandemic of COVID-19, leading to far smaller work and scope than what we have intended in our annual planning. In a sort of an experiment, however, some of our volunteers went ahead to organize an online, carefully-planned summer program in the University of Hebron, which ended up as the most successful single version of the Education Program ever organized by our user group. The experience produced a non-anticipated amount of rich content to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, generated a huge engagement and recreuited many new members to Wikimedia Levant. Several interesting and invaluable learnings came out of the experience, encouraging us to take a different path in our future educational activities.
Palestine/Hebron city
In 11 July 2020, Wikimedia Levant launched the third edition of the Wikipedia Education Program in Hebron, Palestine. Unlike previous editions, this one was conducted completely online; since due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and following Wikimedia Foundation’s policies, it wasn’t possible to organize any on-site activities.
The Education Program’s team in Hebron opted, instead, to convene with the students online via various video conference programs. The students were virtually taught about Wikipedia, its community and history, and its sister Wikimedia projects, and were trained on how to edit the encyclopedia professionally from A to Z.
Surprisingly, this was yet the most successful education program in Palestine. The 45 participating students did a magnificent job, creating a total of 430 articles and expanding 70 more on the Arabic-language Wikipedia, and uploading 415 photos to Wikimedia Commons. One student contributed, all by herself, the sum of one hundred Wikipedia pages, completing the 100 wikidays challenge in less than two months.
They achieved all these accomplishments despite the increasing number of infected patients with Coronavirus in Hebron, which became one of the most infected cities in the Middle East recording about 300 cases daily. Some of the participants were diagnosed positive, too. But this didn't stop them from achieving their amazing work.
The program took 2 months after 11 July 2020. it enriched Wikipedia with pages in different fields including Medicine, Biology, Geography, Sports, Sciences, Civil Engineering, astronomy, Computer science and programming, Law, Arts, Journalism, psychology, chemistry, and Improving Palestinian villages articles. The program coordinates are: Bara'a Zama'rah, Tala Sarabtah and Mohammad Hijjawi.
Spending update edit
Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the majority of our grant funds (those dedicated to in-person events and gatherings) have been, unfortunately, cancelled or moved online. A lot of offline spendings, such as buying awards or holding ceremonies, are currently postponed to an unkown date. Our newly-elected board is yet to come up with a plan for reallocating the funds. So far, the spent amount of the budget is around 100 USD on online Zoom subscription.
Grant Metrics Reporting edit
Metrics, targets and results: grants metrics worksheet here.
| Activity | Total participants | Added content (articles/photos/data) | New accounts | New members | Shared Knowledges |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Education Program - Hebron | 45 | 470 created article + 70 improved article + 415 Photo uploaded on Commons | 45 | 5 | 2 |
| Alam Al-Ma'refa workshop | 11 | Developing the "list of Alam Al-Ma'refa article" to exceeded 317٬117 bytes | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Wiki Ladies online workshop | 11 | 17 created articles | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Morocco's Day participation | 7 | Developing The "Walls of Marrakesh article" to exceeded 67٬227 bytes | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| ACOR's edit-a-thon | 26 | 27 created articles + 43 improved articles + Uploaded one photo on Commons | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Arabic Wikipedia's Day edit-a-thon | 24 |
|
2 | 2 | 2 |
| Earth Day's edit-a-thon | 20 | Created 50 articles, improved 4 articles into a size of several dozen kilobytes | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Levantine Photos compeition | 8 |
|
0 | 0 | 1 |
| Wiki Females project | 15 | creating 63 Articles | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 167 |
|
70 | 13 | 12 |
Final report edit
Program story edit
Please tell or link to one program story that showcases your organization's achievements during the reporting period. This can be another meta page, a blog post or any other source that tells your program story.
Learning story edit
Please link to one learning story that shows how your organization documents lessons learned and adapts its programs accordingly.
Programs Impact edit
Capacity Building & Development
Starting from a vision focused on capacity building as a main theme of the Wikimedia 2030 Strategy, Wikimedia Levant aimed to upscale its volunteer capacity and capabilities through skills training, community health awareness and community development. We have achieved the most significant success in the latter two goals: growing into an enormous membership base of almost a hundred volunteers, and achieving the significant milestone of buildin a Code of Conduct. Training has taken place through various group events and editing workshops, but not so much to outside audiences.
Membership
In this activity year, Wikimedia Levant set up a systematic Membership application process where membersihp has to be renewed every year. From 66 members, in April 1st, when the annual plan started, Wikimedia Levant has grown to have 99 active members (as of October 15th, 2020). This already meets one of our annual goals, to grow into up to a total of 80 active members. Activity and engagement has also skyrocketted, with regular Wikimedia Levant meetings receiving an attendance of up to two dozen participants. The largely developed community of the user group practically showed in the greatly boosted results of our activities and programs.
Administration & structure
Several improvements and developments in Wikimedia Levant administration took place this year to respond to its increasing membership and needs. Transparency and openess in discussion spaces have been adhered to by restricting all major user group discussions to dedicated spaces on Metawiki, with examples of major discussions including the Arab Wikimedians Committee status and the major topic of restructuring.
Towards the annual elections, which usually take place in July/August, a proposal for restructuring the user group was put forward. In the past, our user group tried out several administrative models that yielded different results: ranging from zero structure to a system of dedicated teams each active in a certain area. This year, however, and after a restructuring discussion spanning from 7 July to 5 September 2020, Wikimedia Levant officially adjusted its bylaws to properely separate between decision-making ('legislative') and executive responsibilities.
The user group is now being governed by an elected board of five members (including a Chief Coordinator, Treasurer and Secretary), with bylaws allowing for the selection or hiring of an Executive Director, if the needs comes up. This new structure has been providing an enormous room for proper delegation, governance and organized work in an user group with a circa hundred members.
We developed the administrative structure of our group: Five years after the founding of Wikimedians of the Levant, we made the second set of fundamental changes to our Bylaws since they were first introduced in mid-2017. These changes were significant because they responded to the emerging needs of the group, resulting from its growth in terms of members and its scope of work. A proposal has been put forward to separate the executive and organizational roles in the structure of the user group. The changes were proposed (according to the open governance adopted by Wikimedia Levant) in an open discussion space, where conversations went on for two months, receiving a total of about 7,000 words in comments and feedback.
The adoption of these changes led to a major step in the group’s governance and professional work. The new structure coincided with a steady increase in the number of registered members during this year from about 50 members at the beginning of the year to more than 100 members at the end of the year. This increase, expectedly, reflected on the higher participation across the user group's events, activities and meetings, as the attendance of the regular monthly meeting became much larger, and the activities witnessed a larger distribution of responsibilities in organizational and operational matters.
Community Health
During this year and as part of our annual plan to increase community health awareness, Wikimedia Levant created its first official Code of Conduct. Following a very real need that hasn't been sufficiently addressed for a while, the Code of Conduct was first drafted on 16 May 2020. It took nearly two months of online discussions and multiple user group meetings to approve the final version on 12 July. Since then, consenting to adhere to the code became a requirement for all those who apply to be Wikimedia Levant members, and an increasing number of members have gestured to publicly sign the Code.
Movement Strategy 2030
on October 17th, 2020 Wikimedia Levant's priorities for the implementation of Wikimedia 2030 strategy. The priorities were collected through a survey that followed the Arabic-language prioritization discussion. 10 Respondents from Wikimedia Levant filled the survey.
also, on 6 February Wikimedia Levant held a two-hour strategy event to discuss how to “develop the skills and capabilities of the community” For upcoming years, this topic was a top priority for our afiliate.
Wikimedia Education News
We believe in Wikipedia education goals. to collect Education and the Wikimedia movement, here we have the best chance to realize their goals in the sum of all knowledge that will be accessible to everyone in the world for free and this is the first goal of Wikipedia. so we sharing our experiences with education in the Levant region to be accessible for another affiliate and Increase communication and reach out to the Wikipedia community.
For more information about our letter in Wikimedia education news: click here
social networking team
Wikimedia Levant has formed a social networking team responsible for publishing the group's activities on a well-thought-out and organized period. we recognize the importance of social media, especially in corona pandemic. it taking a central role in the success of any volunteer endeavor so we are always in need of someone to volunteer for social media setup or creative and experienced volunteers to design social media posts. The benefits of volunteering are mutual, as one gains hands-on experience by working on important projects. Many volunteers for social media content built their designs after donating their time and skill working as a real help. The role of social media volunteers is not unilateral, they support the affiliate by planning and creating social media posts. These volunteers are responsible to create social media posts that will generate awareness about our affiliates, activities, volunteering and so on. A social media volunteer is like the voice of the affiliate and it is important for them to do their campaigning effectively and always be motivated to give the best result.
Today, one cannot ignore the usability of this platform, as the opportunity cost of not using it is much higher. The rise of social media use has created a new way of reaching people efficiently. it has the potential to give extraordinary engagement and excellent results. Earlier meant for communication, social media now holds the power to reach target masses. Here are some benefits of social media for profits Wikimedia levant:
- Easy accessibility as it does not require large funds.
- volunteering awareness is created among the target audience and the general people, helping in the success of the program.
- Feedback and communication become easy and can give suggestions for improvement.
- increased support for the project. When more and more people realize the need and importance of worthwhile initiatives, they also join the program in some form or the other.
- help for gain new editors.
Elections list
Elections are an essential part of any democracy. There are various kinds of elections held every year for different purposes. The member chooses their representatives through the process of elections. It provides a chance to choose a leader who will bring development and growth to the affiliate It’s a step that provides equality and fairness as all the members are eligible to vote. three members of the Wikimedia Levant have prepared a detailed preliminary list for the elections that includes the previous points mentioned and that will contribute to building a strong affiliate.
Online lectures
- GLAM lecture
Presented an introduction about GLAM partnerships and work to the members of Wikimedia Levant. The presentation included a general overview of GLAM, examples of global partnerships and a walkthrough of the GLAM activities organized by Wikimedia Levant. About ten members attended and engaged.
- Hamleh Center
Hamleh Center is an Arab Center for Social Media Development, the lectures held on 12 July and 16 July 2020 by using Live on Hamleh Facebook page, it's about principles of editing on Arabic wikipedia and content policies. The number of participants who have viewed the lectures about 2,000 viewer. The lectures coordinators are: Alaa Najjar and Farah Mustaklem.
- Raje'e Center
Raje'e Center is a center that conducts research and awareness campaigns of Palestinian heritage. Upon their request, Wikimedia Levant conducted a two-hour workshop in basic Wikipedia training for their staff on 20 May 2020. The workshop was attended by over a dozen members, with lots of engagement. They expressed interest in following up and were offered help further on, but haven't been in touch again so far.
- Google Club/Palestine
on 28 February 2021, Wikimedia Levant holds a meeting to introduce Wikipedia and its sister projects and how to edit for students may interested to make a partnership with the Google Club/Nablus. The meeting was held on the Zoom application due to the imposed closure (Covid 19). the result was 12 participants were in the meeting and benefited to know the global encyclopedia and our group.
bread and net conference
Bread&Net 2020nline welcomed more than 800 participants from 32 countries on Hopin this year! Over four eventful days, Bread&Net hosted 63 diverse sessions, with over 100 speakers who joined us and shared their valuable insights. Totalitarian Arab regimes, weak and monopolized telecommunications infrastructures, armies of bots promoting fake news, increased surveillance disguised as COVID-19 tracking apps, among other challenges, have all caused quite the stir in digital communities in the MENA region. Moved by this reality, experts from a wide range of fields passionately reported and discussed their findings, concerns, and recommendations as they reflected back on 2020.
on 2 December 2020, Wikimedia Levant participate in Bread&Net 2020 with a panel session. it aims to discuss the experience of the Wikimedia Levant Group is expanding its scope of work and its volunteer base as a pioneering experience at the Arab level, and the challenges and opportunities that the group currently faces in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Online editing workshops
Wikimedia Levant has been utilizing the post-pandemic online environment to help volunteers learn editing and to build consistent paths for new members to become adequate Wikipedians. This cover systematic training methods that we have implemented, along with their various successes and challenges.
* New Levantine members workshop
in November 2020 wikimedia levant held The New Levantine members workshop, with the aim of integrating new volunteers in Wikipedia and its sister projects, facilitating their access to editing tools, and developing their contributions in the field of image translation. The importance of choosing reliable references and how to use them to build an article without violating the rules of writing in Wikipedia. The workshop also emphasized the establishment of the rules of the global code of conduct, and the contributors expressed their views on the mechanisms for implementing and activating the code in the Arab Wikipedia community.
Objectives:
- integration of new participants into the Arabic Wikipedia community through editorial contributions in various domains.
- Familiarize users with the mechanism of changing the username and the reasons for rejecting some names.
- Recognize the method of editing in Wikipedia by building a user page, clarifying the importance of the page, and building userbox templates in increasing the effectiveness of the individual's participation in society, providing a clear definition of it, and eliminating the anonymity of individuals
- Participation in the discussion pages and encourage the expression of opinion.
- Contribute opinion in the stages of building and implementing the global code of conduct.
- Provide participants with the necessary knowledge to localize images using the Photoshop image processing program.
- to know wiki commons and how to upload translated images to it.
the results of this workshop were:
- improved 1 Article.
- 7 editors participated.
- uploaded 3 translated images on wiki commons.
- Contribute in the discussion of the implementation of the global code of conduct.
- Participants create userbox templates and add on their own pages.
The project coordinates are: NANöR and Nada kareem.
For more information you can click here
* New Beginner Editing Workshop 1
this workshop starts on February 20, 2021, and ends on March 30, 2021. it is part of the activities of Wikimedia Levant within the Arabic Wikipedia, and it aims to:
- Training participants in basic writing skills.
- encourage participants to have aAutoreview User on Arabic wikipedia.
- Develop reusable presentation slides.
Workshop program:
- Opening session: February 20, 2021
- First session: February 21, 2021
- Second session: February 28, 2021
- Third session: March 07, 2021
the results of this workshop were:
- 11 editors participated.
- 11 editors participated had aAutoreview User on Arabic wikipedia.
- Develop full reusable presentation slides.
The project coordinates are: NANöR and Michel Bakni.
For more information you can click here
* New Beginner Editing Workshop 2
The workshop lasted for almost two months between 20 April and 10 June 2021. The main objective was to train newcomers and provide them with basic skills so they can start their journey on Wikipedia. The workshop started with 10 new participants, however, only 4 of them completed the complete course and produced articles, which was the main goal of the course.
The organizers of the workshop are Michel BAKNI and Omar Qandil.
Content
Wikimedia Levant's Content program was the most impacted and, yet, the most positively affected by the global pandemic of COVID-19. Leading to the cancellation or virsualization of nearly a dozen in-person events and workshops, the pandemic still proved to the advantage of engagement in our online editing workshops and competitions. We received unprecedented numbers of engagement thanks to our growing user base and were able to participate considerably in community events and occasions. Content produced by the user group members during this years have generally been more focused on quality rather than quantity (e.g. producing a dozen featured/good articles in a single event and improving large amounts of existing articles). Content continues to spark the interest of our volunteers as the chief part of Wikimedia Projects thay they're passionate about, and have been successfully adapting to the changing conditions (despite sharp budget alterations it has caused).
Wiki Females project
Wiki Females is a project that launched in april 2020, to be a comfort space for the girls in Arabic Wikipedia and supportive project mainly for female's content And its related topics in health, medicine, cosmetology, care, children, cultural and social aspects, etc. it aims to supporting and encouraging girls in editing, and to be contact each others. the results of this project:
- creating 63 Articles from zero.
- 15 editors participated.
The project coordinates are: Baraa zama'reh, Areen abu rumman and Donia Domiaty.
For more information you can click here
Earth Day's edit-a-thon
In celebration of Earth Day which was on April 22nd, the Wikimedia Levant launched an edit-a-thon to create articles related to environmental issues and climate change. The day began on April 19 and continued until after the occasion, to allow participants to complete their articles.
there was related articles available in English, which were collected in a Google Sheet to make it easy to access and choose the right one for each participant: Environment and Climate Change Articles.
the results of this celebration Day were:
- creating 51 Articles from zero.
- improved 4 Articles.
- 16 editors participated.
The program coordinates are: Mervat salman, Alaa Najjar and Abbad Diraneyya.
For more information you can click here
ACOR's edit-a-thon
On 13 July 2020, ACOR held Jordanian Heritage Edit-a-thon and it was completely online, the goal was to write, edit, translate, and add citations to articles related to cultural heritage in Jordan. it was collaborating organizations (Wikimedia Levant, the Jordan Open Source Association, and the American Center of Oriental Research),that will seek to improve this free, open-access digital resource for anyone who wishes to learn more about Jordan’s past and present.
Even though they cannot gather to research and edit in person, the Open Jordanian Heritage team plans to set up a virtual space, via Slack and Zoom, to train participants in editing Wikipedia articles using open-access library and archival resources. Experienced editors were be available throughout the day to troubleshoot technical and content questions. and all of participate can be duration of time that he/she choosen.
You can find the event on the outreach dashboard. The results of this edit-a-thon Focused on: 26 editor, 24 created articles, 43 improved articles, one photo uploaded on Commons and 26.9k words added.
The edit-a-thon coordinates are: Abbad Diraneyya, Areen Abu Rumman and Raya Sharbin.
For more information you can click here
Levantine Photos compeition
Levantine Photos compeition was held on 24 April 2020 and continued throughout Ramadan until 23 may 2020. to enrich Arabic Wikipedia articles with pictures on Levantine countries, where participants compete to add images from Wikimedia Commons or upload new images to Arabic Wikipedia articles which related to the Levantine countries:Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Lebanon. the results of this compeition:
- 8 editors participated.
For more information click here.
Arabic Wikipedia's Day edit-a-thon
As a part of Arabic community, Wikimedia Levant participate at 16th Arabic Wikipedia's Day edit-a-thon, Which is an annual Arabic Wikipedia event, it Happened on the first saturday after 9th of it (date of establishing Arabic Wikipedia),The duration of the edit-a-thon was 24 hours editing on Arabic Wikipedia to help in improving Articles. This year it was on 11th of July, with participating a large number from Wikimedia Levant members. Where they were organised on teams from a month before to work and improve articles. (You can get more details from here in Arabic)
The Aim was:
- having a new five (5) Featured Articles on Arabic Wikipedia.
- improve twenty (20) Seeds in different sections to The perfect article.
- Translate Twenty (20) Pictures from Commons to Arabic Language.
- Adding Categories and templates to twenty (20) Articles.
After finishing this day, The result was:
- Four (4) Featured Articles.
- Six (6) Good Articles.
- Three (3) Featured Lists.
- Twenty five (25) Pictures translated in Commons to Arabic Language.
- two (2) Seeds articles improved to The perfect Article.
- General editing to Arabic Wikipedia like Bashkir Language.
Morocco's Day participation
On 18 July 2020, Wikimedia Levant participated in the third Moroccan Wikipedia day that held by Wikimedia MA User Group, which is an annual Moroccan Wikipedia event, in which all Moroccan editors (and others) write articles on Morocco. This Day aims to enrich the articles related to Morocco. We aim to encourage others to work on Arabic Wikipedia and publish articles as much as possible. so in this day we formed a team from 7 editors who working on developing "The Walls of Marrakesh" article to be perfect article and participate.
Wiki Ladies online workshop
Within Wikimedia Levant's vision for organizing Wikimedians who share similar interests, challenges and needs, it's extremely important to eliminate gender bias as far as possible in our community. The idea to have an InterWiki Women Collaboration was born during Wikimania 2017 at 100wikidays Meetup in Montreal, which will help to fill gender gap and enrich Arabic wikipedia content and create articles that correspond With the policies of Wikipedia, this collaborative workshop was launched in its first edition in 2020 as an extension of the idea of global wiki women's collaboration. workshop held on 1 September 2020 and ended on 21 September 2020, with the end of the InterWiki Women Collaboration 2020.
The workshop aims to:
- learn volunteers on the content translation tool and how to use it.
- How to edit on Wikipedia.
- learn how adding information and documenting it with reliable references using citation templates.
- Building knowledge bridges between new and old editors.
- Translating and developing many biographical women articles and health sector.
- spirit of cooperation and team-work between volunteers.
The results included contributed by 11 volunteers who created 17 articles. The workshop coordinates are: Mervat, Nanour Garabedian and Nada kareem22.
For more information you can click here
Alam Al-Ma'refa workshop
This workshop is part of Wikimedia Levant activities within the Arabic Wikipedia Content, and it aims to:
- Developing the list of Alam Al-Ma'refa article and nominating such as the Featured lists.
- Training group members on basic editing skills such as Reliable sources, Citing sources and Citation Style documentation.
- Providing participants with the skills to upload images locally on Arabic Wikipedia and globally on wiki Commons.
in Workshop that Hold periodic online meetings on Jitsi Meet to communicate with the participants, it took 3 months started from August to October 2020.The participants were divided into two teams to make the work more easier and effective. The results included contributed by 11 volunteers. Page size exceeded 317٬117 bytes. The list was nominated for review on 13 October 2020. The workshop coordinators are: Michel Bakni and Mervat. For more information you can click here
Levant- Greece Cultural Exchange Program
is a content exchange program between Wikimedians of the Levant and the Greece Community. It is a part of the content exchange program between Arabic/English speakers and English/Greece speakers. held on 1 December 2020 and ended on 31 December 2020, The idea of this exchange program came from a collaborative discussion in November 2020. With this program, Wikipedians from both communities exchanged the most important articles from their respective languages and translate them into their own as a token of friendship. This contributed to reducing the cultural as well as content gap and strengthen the bond between Levantine and Greek communities. Please note that Wikimedians of Levant will translate from English to Arabic (Greek Content) and Greek Wikimedians will translate from English to Greek (Arabic Content) to express Arabic culture in the Greek language. The results included contributed by 22 volunteers who created 101 articles. 71 from Wikimedia levant side and 30 from the Greek community. The program coordinates are: Bara'a, Saintfevrier .
For more information:Click here
One Hundred Icons Workshop
The workshop aims to upload At least 100 icons from the Orthodox (Russian and Byzantine) and Armenian schools with full Documentation of icon information in Wikidata and Commons. then Enrich the Arabic Wikipedia-related articles. it started on October 1, 2020, and extended for a month until the end of January 2021 due to the Corona pandemic and Inaccessibility to public libraries. The results included contributed by 5 volunteers who Uploaded 132 photos for all school. The workshope coordinate is: Michel Bakni.
For more information: Click here
Arabic Language Workshop 2020
On 18 December 2020, Wikimedia Levant held a workshop to celebrate Arabic language day, it aims to create and develop a list of article, Development some templates for the Arabic language, Create a list of reliable sources for Arabic literature, and Record poetry to add on Arabic articles. The results included contributed by 14 volunteers who created 5 articles and improved 12 articles, uploaded 1 photo to wiki commons and record 16 poetry then uploaded on Arabic Wikipedia. The workshop coordinates are: Michel Bakni and Manal ajami
For more information: Click here
Commons workshop
The workshop is meant to be active during the calendar year of 2021. The objective is to translate 100 public domain template licenses to improve the experience of Arabic users in Wikimedia commons.
As for July 2021, more than 150 templates were translated into Arabic including 50 public domain template licenses. The description of the message of the day and the video of the was translated for the first 5 months of the year (150 pics + 150 video).The workshop might be extended to include Commons policies if there is enough time available.
The involved users are Michel Bakni, Sandra, Alaa and NANöR.
For more information: Click here
WikiMedicine Workshop in Alexandria 2021
The activity was carried out as cooperation between Wikimedians of the Levant and Alexandria Students' Scientific Association (ASSA), a local branch of IFMSA-Egypt affiliated to International Federation of Medical Students' Associations (IFSMA) and Wikipedian editor project. It was held on 14 February 2021 at ASSA's office in Alexandria faculty of medicine. The same Workshop held previously on February 2019,2020.
More than 50 students participated in the workshop from the Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Faculty of Medicine, Polytechnic University in Palestine, and other faculties at Alexandria University and other Egyptian universities, in addition to high school participants and STEM school students, They created more than 26 articles. The workshop coordinates are: Ala'a and Donia Domiaty.
For more information: Click here
Wiki loves monuments 2020
Wikimedia Levant organized its sixth regional version of Wiki Loves Monuments, the international photo contest, in November 2020. One significant difference from previous versions was that the contest was structured as a single event for the entire area of the Levant: thus, contestants from Jordan, Lebanon, Syria & Palestine all participated together to compete for 750 USD worth of prize money.
This year's version had great success, with a total of 1709 images uploaded to Wikimedia Commons (130 from Palestine; 463 from Syria; 876 from Jordan; and 240 from Lebanon).
In an outstanding achievement, Wikimedia Levant's local competition successfully scored 7th place in the international competition of Wiki Loves Monuments (a great ranking achieved by an Arabic-speaking country participating). The title was claimed by Mohammad Abo Helal for his fascinating picture, St George's Cathedral, Aleppo: also chosen among the top ten photos from Syria.
For more information: Click here
Jordanian Academics Virtual Edit-a-thon
Seasons change, but the need to update and edit Wikipedia remains the same! Following our Open Jordanian Heritage Virtual Edit-a-thon this past June, we are excited to bring another Wikipedia workshop on the theme of Jordanian academics. we shared resources and fostering online spaces of collaboration for the purpose of helping highlight the contributions of Jordanian researchers on both Arabic and English Wikipedia.
Additional details, including article lists. We are excited also to be collaborated with new institutions for this event, to reach beyond themes addressed in the past, and to take advantage of the latest publications in ACOR’s library and archive.
This event held on 24 October 2020, it comes from the cooperation between several institutions interested in academic research in Jordan and in science and free knowledge, including the American Center for Oriental Studies, the Jordanian Open Source Association, Wikimedia levant, and Phi Science Institute, and you can benefit from some of the publications of the institutions participating in cooperation.
The results included contributed by 17 volunteers who created 20 articles and improved 6 articles, uploaded 2 photo to wikiCommons.
For more information: Click here
Islamic World Heritage Documentation Project
Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. History is an integral part of our present and there are many landmarks that need to be documented in the Islamic world, on 1 January 2020, we think to open a project that supports our history, then uploaded information on the Wikimedia project to reach other languages and to be freely available on the Internet.
The project had many objectives like:
- Architectural documentation of 20 Islamic landmarks in the Levant region.
- connects Wikimedia projects by using the Wikidata project.
- Take advantage of the existing competencies in the Wikimedia Levant users group, to create a framework that unifies the efforts.
The project stands by Choosing the Levant Islamic landmarks, Redrawing images in AutoCAD program (DWG format), Convert image to vector SVG format, Upload image to Wikimedia Commons and Add the appropriate documentary description and connect with Wikidata, Add the image to the levant articles on the Arabic Wikipedia.
The results included contributed by 3 volunteers who draw 7 images, uploaded them to wikiCommons then add to suitable arabic articles.
The project coordinates are: Bara'a Zamara and Michel Bakni
For more information: Click here
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Project logo, Architecture documentation in the Islamic world -
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Wikipedia 20
Meetups were conducted in three cities across the region of the Levant, "Being a regional user group scattered across several countries, Wikimedia Levant organized parallel online activities to the many members who cannot make to in-person meetings. Due to this being an exams season for students, the online efforts wew a bit tuned down compared to our usual events":
- Hebron, Palestine: Thursday 14 January, including lunch, cake and socialization of local Wikimedians (adhering to the social distancing regulations)."12 member partipant"
- Ramallah, Palestine: Thursday 14 January, including lunch, cake and socialization of local Wikimedians (adhering to the social distancing regulations)."10 member partipant"
- Amman, Jordan: Thursday 14 January, including cake and socialization of local Wikimedians (adhering to the social distancing regulations)."8 member partipant"
Also, Wikimedia levant users had designed a symbol for Wikipedia 20 in New Levantine workshop, a periodic workshop every 3 months in the year.
WikiGap 2021
Wikimedia Levant participated in the global WikiGap event during 9-12 March 2021, celebrating International Women's Day in a very Wikimedian spirit. it was a collaboration with institutions: Canada embassy, Embassy of Sweden, KUTC, UN women, American center of research, Jordan open-source association and he for she. This was the first time for the user group to organize the event online due to the corona pandemic. Several volunteers from Wikimedia have dedicated an entire work day to train and facilitate nearly a hundred volunteers contributing to Wikipedia. The results were yet another success, 61 participants producing a total of 65 articles with more than 530,000 bytes added contributed during the day about Jordanian, Arab, Sweden, Canadian and global women. The event was concluded with a celebration ceremony at "RUN THE WORLD" platform on March 12th.
For more information: Click here
Wiki loves Ramadan 2021 contest
on 13 april, wikimedia levant This last Ramadan called on volunteer photographers in the Levant region to capture photos of their daily dishes during the holy month.
Titled The Levant Food Photo Contest, the competition is a push to enrich and support regional content on the platform. Images were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, free to use by media as well as help illustrate articles on Arabic Wikipedia pages. A total of 171 photos were submitted by 8 volunteers, out of which five were selected as winning images. Palestinian photographer Osama Silwadi, who judged the competition, told The National that he was primarily looking for pictures that showed the cultural and civilisational aspect of food preparation and table arrangement.
"Food and cooking are among the most important cultural aspects of any people," he said. "Food photography isn't easy either. It requires knowledge and taste in organisation and design, and good choice of colour and backgrounds that work with the dish."
The five winning images were of the following dishes in order from first place to fifth place: hummus with meat, grilled fish, kollaj stuffed with cream, shakshuka and stuffed vegetables. The images will now be used in Wikipedia entries for those dishes. The winners have also received certificates and awards.
The contest coordinates are: mervat salman, Bara'a Zamara and Ala'a Najjar
For more information: Click here
Human rights contest
"Every human being should have a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment to live in". we can increase knowledge about the healthy natural systems upon which all people rely for the water they drink, the air they breathe, the food they eat and the resources they need.
Fulfilling the human right to a healthy environment empowers those most affected by environmental harms, understanding the knowledge related to these topics will help communities around the world in decision making at all levels and will ultimately lead to a more effective and greener crisis response and recovery.
Wikimedia Levant participated in the global #WikiForHumanRights event during April 15-May 15 to celebrate Earth Day. On 20 April 2021 we Join to create content that connects human rights, a healthy environment, and diverse communities impacted by environmental issues around the world. by organized a local contest for two week in levant region, The results included contributed by 4 volunteers who created 53 articles.
Contest coordinates are: Mervat, Bara'a Zamara and sandra hanbo.
For more information:Click here
International Day for Monuments and Sites 2021
The International Council on Monuments and Sites ICOMOS celebrates International Day for Monuments and Sites 2021, which falls on April 18 of each year, as a reminder of the importance of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, so that peoples celebrate their heritage and culture in their various ways.
The International Council on Monuments and Sites ICOMOS Jordan, in cooperation with the Wikimedia Levant Group, hold a virtual workshop to celebrate International Day for Monuments and Sites 2021, by documenting Jordanian heritage landmarks registered in the UNESCO Heritage List and the sites included in the Tentative list in writing and pictures, the aim of workshop enhancing and increasing the Arab heritage content on the Wikipedia Encyclopedia.
also, ICOMOS organized a meeting that brought together thirty speakers from around the world in celebration of International Day for Monuments and Sites 2021, Jordan participated through a member of the Council and member of the Wikimedia Levant Nedhal Jarrar, who spoke about the necessity of digitizing heritage documentation and the partnership between the Council and the Wikimedia levant.
workshop coordinate is: Nedhal Jarrar.
For more information:Click here
Education
Our Education program was severely impacted by the global pandemic of COVID-19, leading to far smaller work and scope than what we have intended in our annual planning. In a sort of an experiment, however, some of our volunteers went ahead to organize an online, carefully-planned summer program in the University of Hebron, which ended up as the most successful single version of the Education Program ever organized by our user group. The experience produced a non-anticipated amount of rich content to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, generated a huge engagement and recreuited many new members to Wikimedia Levant. Several interesting and invaluable learnings came out of the experience, encouraging us to take a different path in our future educational activities.
Palestine/Hebron city
In 11 July 2020, Wikimedia Levant launched the third edition of the Wikipedia Education Program in Hebron, Palestine. Unlike previous editions, this one was conducted completely online; since due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and following Wikimedia Foundation’s policies, it wasn’t possible to organize any on-site activities.
The Education Program’s team in Hebron opted, instead, to convene with the students online via various video conference programs. The students were virtually taught about Wikipedia, its community and history, and its sister Wikimedia projects, and were trained on how to edit the encyclopedia professionally from A to Z.
Surprisingly, this was yet the most successful education program in Palestine. The 45 participating students did a magnificent job, creating a total of 430 articles and expanding 70 more on the Arabic-language Wikipedia, and uploading 415 photos to Wikimedia Commons. One student contributed, all by herself, the sum of one hundred Wikipedia pages, completing the 100 wikidays challenge in less than two months.
They achieved all these accomplishments despite the increasing number of infected patients with Coronavirus in Hebron, which became one of the most infected cities in the Middle East recording about 300 cases daily. Some of the participants were diagnosed positive, too. But this didn't stop them from achieving their amazing work.
The program took 2 months after 11 July 2020. it enriched Wikipedia with pages in different fields including Medicine, Biology, Geography, Sports, Sciences, Civil Engineering, astronomy, Computer science and programming, Law, Arts, Journalism, psychology, chemistry, and Improving Palestinian villages articles. The program coordinates are: Bara'a Zama'rah, Tala Sarabtah and Mohammad Hijjawi.
GLAM and Education
Wikimedia Levant signed partnerships to engage in GLAM and Education, it extended its partnerships with both universities and GLAM institutions, which can help us better engage in the Education Program as well as document local and regional heritage. One of the new partnerships formed was with the German Jordanian University in Madaba, which was immediately followed by an introductory training workshop for students. We are also drafting final partnership agreements with a few other amazing institutions, including the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), Centre for Architectural Conservation (Riwaq) and International Council on Monuments and Sites in Jordan (ICOMOS Jordan).
Wikipedia education program in German Jordanian University
The German Jordanian University Education Program is one of the education programs that included in a partnership signed between the university and Wikimedia Levant in 2020. it was officially launched on Arabic Language Day, Friday, December 18, 2020,by an online virtual introductory workshop for students interested in edit on Arabic Wikipedia.
This program was organized as a virtual program due to the Corona pandemic, in the future, we will decide to take advantage of the university’s multiple platforms on the Internet. Part of the education program is dedicated to German students currently at the university (exchange program) to translate articles of Arabic content in German into English or Arabic on Wikipedia.
In the end, the program passed and ended well, with the participation of 9 faculties and 33 students, and the creation of 33 good encyclopedic articles.
The program coordinate is: Nedhal Jarrar.
For more information: Click here
Wikipedia Education Program faculty of Medicine/Palestine Polytechnic University
In January 2021, Wikimedia of the Levant launched the first Educational Program in cooperation with the Faculty of Medicine at Palestine Polytechnic University in Hebron, Palestine. The program was totally Online. 45 medicine students participated in the program and wrote 200 pages (including developing 2 good articles and 2 Feature articles) in Arabic Wikipedia about medicine and related topics, also they uploaded 330 photos on Wikimedia commons.
The program coordinates are: Bara'a Zama'rah, Ala'a najjar and sami Jabari.
Winter Edition of Wikipedia's Education Program
The program was held in early January of the year 2021. To take advantage of the free time between the semester breaks for universities and schools. First, we held three online meetings and presented the videos that were produced by the Al-marefa Project. Then the participants start working on the articles. We put a lot of emphasis on the importance of quality written content as we said (QUALITY NOT NUMBER). In fact, the participants excelled at work excellently beyond expectations, especially the new ones. They have translated articles from English into Arabic in various disciplines. The maximum number of articles to be submitted was three. During the program, we communicated with the participating students directly through a group between us on one of the communication programs, and we were in constant contact with them to make our observations up-to-date and answer all their questions.
In the end, the program passed and ended well, with the participation of 20 students, and the creation of 80 good encyclopedic articles. Wikipedia really gives us a chance to get to know these amazing, kind people.
The program coordinates are: Bara'a Zama'rah and Tala sarabtah.
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Midterm report
| Activity | Total participants | Added content (articles/photos/data) | New accounts | New members | Shared Knowledges |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Education Program - Hebron | 45 | 470 created article + 70 improved article + 415 Photo uploaded on Commons | 45 | 5 | 2 |
| Alam Al-Ma'refa workshop | 11 | Developing the "list of Alam Al-Ma'refa article" to exceeded 317٬117 bytes | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Wiki Ladies online workshop | 11 | 17 created articles | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Morocco's Day participation | 7 | Developing The "Walls of Marrakesh article" to exceeded 67٬227 bytes | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| ACOR's edit-a-thon | 26 | 27 created articles + 43 improved articles + Uploaded one photo on Commons | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Arabic Wikipedia's Day edit-a-thon | 24 |
|
2 | 2 | 2 |
| Earth Day's edit-a-thon | 20 | Created 50 articles, improved 4 articles into a size of several dozen kilobytes | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Levantine Photos compeition | 8 |
|
0 | 0 | 1 |
| Wiki Females project | 15 | creating 63 Articles | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 167 |
|
70 | 13 | 12 |
Final report
| Activity | Total participants | Added content (articles/photos/data) | New accounts | New members | Shared Knowledges |
| New Levantine members workshop | 7 |
|
7 | 5 | 2 |
| New Beginner Editing Workshop 1 | 11 |
|
4 | 4 | 1 |
| New Beginner Editing Workshop 2 | 10 | 4 created article | 4 | 4 | 1 |
| Levant- Greece Cultural Exchange Program | 22 | 71 created article | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| One Hundred Icons Workshop | 5 | 132 Photo uploaded on Commons | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Arabic Language Workshop 2020 | 14 |
|
0 | 0 | 1 |
| Commons workshop | 3 | 150 templates were translated into Arabic including 50 public domain template licenses | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| WikiMedicine Workshop in Alexandria 2021 | 50 | 26 created article | 27 | 0 | 1 |
| Wiki loves monuments 2020 | 170 | 1709 images uploaded on Commons | 170 | 0 | 1 |
| Jordanian Academics Virtual Edit-a-thon | 17 |
|
17 | 0 | 1 |
| Islamic World Heritage Documentation Project | 2 | 7 Photo re-drawing uploaded on Commons | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Wikipedia 20 | 30 | -- | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| WikiGap 2021 | 61 | 65 created article | 61 | 0 | 1 |
| Wiki loves Ramadan 2021 contest | 8 | 171 Photo uploaded on Commons | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Human rights contest | 4 | 53 created article | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Wikipedia education program in German Jordanian University | 33 | 33 created article | 33 | 0 | 1 |
| Wikipedia Education Program faculty of Medicine/Palestine Polytechnic University | 45 |
|
45 | 5 | 1 |
| Winter Edition of Wikipedia's Education Program | 20 | 80 created article | 18 | 2 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 512 |
|
386 | 20 | 18 |
|---|