Video by Victor Grigas, CC BY-SA 3.0. You can also view it on Vimeo or Youtube.
Last January, Iraqi Wikimedians held a Wikipedia meetup in Baghdad where they helped attendees understand how Wikipedia works and taught them basic editing skills. “Iraqis’ participation on Wikipedia is limited,” said Mahmoud Alrawi, one of the workshop organizers. Consequently, “there is a lack of coverage about Iraqi topics on Wikipedia.”
Alrawi and his fellows in the Iraqi Wikimedians user group wanted to share their experience on Wikipedia with new users. They used their Facebook page to invite interested followers to join the workshop. Many people from Baghdad and other places in Iraq registered to attend the workshop, but the number of interested users greatly exceeded the number of spots available in the workshop. Participants included educators, students, senior citizens, and others from different backgrounds.
“Our priority in the near future will be to follow up with those newbies who need attention,” Alrawi explained. “For example, the concept of notability was not very clear to everyone. We had to address this first. After that, we may want to hold similar workshops in other cities and towns in Iraq, so that attendees don’t need to travel far to learn about Wikipedia.”
You can get in contact with them on the Iraqi Wikimedians meta page.
Samir Elsharbaty, Digital Content Intern
Wikimedia Foundation
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