December 10
I am Turkish Wikipedian. Because of the difficult political situation and the ban of Wikipedia in my country, I’ll stay anonymous here. Despite all the circumstances, I’m engaged in Wikipedia and I think it is more important than ever. Although the access is banned, we as a community are trying to continue our work. We hold online meetings and generate ideas to disseminate free knowledge. Whatever happens, we try to motivate ourselves to continue working!
You know, to change the world, you need a sheet of paper and a pen and these two will not let you down. In the digital world, these two components are represented by Wikipedia. You need information just as the fresh air, then you can freely access and keep your mind alive with this information. Wikipedia is not a printed encyclopedia, but a way of life!
I’m really interested in arts and culture, and I have watched and admired paintings in many exhibitions in Europe. There are so many GLAM institutions with treasures – I do my best to make people understand the artworks in a better way by writing about them.
But how could our community flourish and increase? In my country, the ban of Wikipedia – for more than two years already – is by far the biggest challenge. I hope and think one day this will be solved via a legal process, and access to information for all Turkish people will be restored. Access to knowledge is so important – a world where access to information is unlimited will surpass the galaxies more easily and by this! My greatest motivation is the eternity of the universe and my motivation is always related to this amazing subject.
But of course, there are also other challenges: We have a huge lack of citations and references. As a community, I think that we should work on this problem by providing information and instructions so that we can draw attention to it. We also need to find ways to increase the number of active participants who are able to use their knowledge to act.
Wikimedia is a rare structure that serves all humanity. The way to develop this structure is to attract more curious minds to this movement which enriches the world with knowledge. You know, I think curious people are open to development, are engaged in overcoming difficulties and solving problems. For me, we need to use “Knowledge Equity” to attract more curious and excited people. Having more of them we will withstand any obstacles and censorship!
You want to know more?
- Blog post: Our legal case against Turkey’s block of Wikipedia has been expedited. Here’s what that means.
- Blog post: European Court of Human Rights has decided to expedite case on online censorship brought against the government of Turkey for blocking Wikipedia
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