Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group/Annual Plan for 2021

Annual Plan for 2021


Dubai, UAE
2021

Introduction

Annual Plan for 2021 of Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group is an annual action plan that builds on the organization’s strategic plan for 2021.

Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group is a user group of the Wikimedia Foundation, an U.S.-based non-profit organization that operates and manages the Wikimedia projects. Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group (Arabic: مجموعة مستخدمين ويكيميدية الإمارات العربية المتحدة) created and approved on 04 February 2020 by active members of Wikimedia contributors living in UAE, who are interested in organizing and participating in outreach activities on a national level.

In addition to the fact that Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group contributes to the development of Wikimedia projects in UAE and the Arabic language, Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group has set a goal to develop Wikimedia projects in the languages of the region of MENA, so in our plan there will be projects that will contribute to this.

Strategy

This Strategic Plan defines the programs of Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group divided into five main goals: 1) Content Gap, 2) Increasing Participation, 3) Community Support, Development & Promoting Wikimedia, 4) Collaborate with GLAM, Universities, Educational Institutions and other Wikimedia and Non-Wikimedia organizations. All of these programs are designed to develop Wikimedia projects in UAE and other Wikimedia languages.

Since December 2020, Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group has begun very active in promotion of Wikimedia Project in UAE and we develop community wikis. We believe that with the help of the programs listed below we will be able to more actively develop Wikimedia projects. We have for now a partnership with at least 5 university and we are the representative of ISNI in UAE.

Annual Plan

The annual plan is based on three programs, which are as follows:

1. Content Gap.
2. Increasing Participation.
3. Community Support, Development & Promoting Wikimedia.

Content Gap

One of the main goals of Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group is to increase the content of Wikimedia projects (the most important Wikipedia) in Arabic and English language. To achieve this goal, Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group will hold various competitions (Article Contests, Photography Contests, Wikimarathon, Wikicamp) on the Arabic Wikipedia. Contests are international. In June we will start one of the biggest contest in the arab world (see in the Arabic wikipedia) in association with Google.

This programm is focused on bringing new content into Wikimedia projects. Various online contests and field expeditions are designed for reaching this goal. While there are long-lasting projects like WLM and WLE photo contests.

Article Contests

The open competition proved to be one of the best ways to lessen content gaps that are identified, bring new content on specific topic and new editors into Wikiprojects. They also attract those users who are not interested in pressing Edit button until getting the motivation and appeal to write on the topic they care or know about.

We hold contests on topics such as literature, Books, Geography, etc. which are not finalized or do not exist at all on Arabic Wikipedia. This is a unique chance to increase Wikipedia content on difficult topics, as well as attract more volunteers to Wikimedia projects by providing them with opportunities (for information we have until now we trained 86 volunteers).

In 2021 we will continue organising article writing contests. We have already agreed to hold contests on the topic of gender, culture, art, music, and other long-lasting contests.

Photography Contests

We plan to bring again one photo contest, Wiki Loves Monuments 2021 in UAE and Wiki Loves Earth 2021. Each year cultural heritage sites under state protection get more and more images to illustrate articles but there are still significant gaps, such as entire naturals heritage without a single photo.

Wikidata For UAE

With the help of professionals from the Wikimedia Foundation and from Wikidata, we want to teach new skills in working out in Wikidata for the UAE WikiCommunity, for this we are going to arrange training in work out in Wikidata for enthusiasts of the UAE WikiCommunity. This is important for us because we have collected a large donation database on arab authors for the library. and all this content, we want to put it on the Wikidata platform.

Program Objectives:

• to improve Wikipedia's coverage of topics that were prioritized by the community.
• to increase the quality and quantity of photographic content about protected nature sites, cultural heritage sites.
• to ensure photo contest content is used to illustrate Wikimedia projects through organising an on-wiki collaboration.
• Organizing and participating in the International projects.
• Increasing the skills of editors of Wikimedia projects in Arabic language.

Program Metrics:

Metric	Target
Number of contest	2
Total participants	300
Number of newly registered users	200
New articles	3000

Timeline:

• June 1 – June 30: Kateb Maktub article contest 1st season (about authors of the arabic world)
• August 1 – August 31: Kateb Maktub article contest 2nd season (about authors of the arabic world)

Increasing Participation

One of the main goals of Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group is to increase the volunteers of Wikimedia project editors. The increase of the number of participants in Wikimedia projects, primarily in the Arabic language, is strategic for us, since the growth of the Wikimedia content and the quality of the content created depend on the number of participants.

We seek to different groups and individuals, including under-represented in our community by supporting and organising trainings aimed at increasing participation in the Wikimedia movement. We are working with our community to find opportunities to increase participation and improve the climate for newbies in Wikimedia projects. This is done through outreach activities, partnerships with particular outreach institutions, on-wiki initiatives (such as Wikimarathons and Article contests). These activities have parallel aims of improving content and attracting more participation from the target groups.

To attract new volunteers and participants in the Wikimedia project in UAE, we will carry out the following projects:

1. We will conduct active trainings and workshops in educational institutions and for interested parties.
2. We will conduct thematic competitions and wikimarathons.

Program Objectives:

• to engage more students by organising trainings in universities.
• education of people in the UAE through Wikipedia, and other Wikimedia projects.
• increase the content of Wikimedia projects in Arabic language through online and in person Wikimarathons.

Program Metrics:

Metric	Target
Number of Community Events	6
Number of trainings	6
Total participants of WikiClubs	100
Number of newly registered users	100
New articles	500

Timeline:

• May 1 - Zayed University
• June 1 - American University of Beirut
• July 1 - American University in Cairo
• August 1 - University of sharjah
• September 1 - University of Effat
• October 1 -New York University of Abu Dhabi

Community Support, Development & Promoting Wikimedia

One of our main goals is organizational development. At the moment, our organization is a User Group and our goal is to become an official Wikimedia chapter and the first in the arabic world, which will also promote Wikimedia projects in Arabic as a user group. To achieve this, we will use different paths.

Community Events

Organizing face-to-face meet-ups is important for both Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group members and the whole WikiCommunity in UAE. They allow to enhance online cooperation, boost useful networking connections among volunteers, and facilitate knowledge sharing in the format of presentations, discussions, and personal meetings. Bringing volunteers together is especially crucial for community development in UAE because of the geographical vastness of our country. Organizing conferences and other events in regions also helps boost and increase local communities.

The UAE WikiConference and the Annual General Meeting are two main annual community events. The first such meeting will be held in Q2 of the 2022 Besides this, Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group will hold annual General Meetings with the participation of all members of our organization to address important issues of our organization.