Malaysian universities and Wikimedia events

In this article, I introduce Malaysian universities and colleges that hosted or served as venues for Wikimedia events.

Universiti Malaysia Sabah

On 15 January 2023, the 51st Wikipedia meetups in Malaysia was held at Universiti Malaysia Sabah. At the meetup, Taufik Rosman (User:Tofeiku), later selected as Wikimedian of the Year 2023, gave a talk about some Wikimedia projects to 55 participants!

You can see the details of the event on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Sabah 10]] and the articles the participants edited are listed up on the Outreach Dashboard [[1lib1ref di Perpustakaan UMS Sandakan Januari 2023]].

National University of Malaysia

On 8 March 2023, the 53rd Wikipedia meetup in Malaysia, known as WikiGap Malaysia 2023 Edit-a-thon was held at National University of Malaysia. WikiGap is a global campaign which aims to close the gender gap on Wikimedia projects in partnership with Sweden embassies. So, this event was supported by Swedish Embassy in Malaysia.

You can see the details of the event on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Selangor 4]] and the articles the participants edited are listed up on the Outreach Dashboard [[WikiGap Malaysia 2023 – UKM]].

University College Sabah Foundation

On 13 March 2023, the 54th Wikipedia meetup in Malaysia, known as WikiGap Malaysia 2023 – Kota Kinabalu was held at University College Sabah Foundation. This event was also supported by Swedish Embassy in Malaysia. In addition, it focused on Bajau language and participants contributed to Wikimedia Incubator, the test wiki for the languages which do not have their own version of Wikimedia projects.

You can see the details of the event on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Sabah 11]] and the articles the participants edited are listed up on the Outreach Dashboard [[WikiGap Malaysia 2023 – Kota Kinabalu]].

Institute of Teacher Education Kent Campus

Institute of Teacher Education Kent Campus hosted two editathons. The first one is the 46th Wikipedia meetups in Malaysia on 11 November 2022. At the meetup, Taufik Rosman gave a talk about the collaboration of Kadazandusun language and Wiktionary. In addition, the idea of starting a Wiki Club on campus was discussed.

You can see the details of the event on English Wikipedia[[Wikipedia:Meetup/Sabah 8]] and the entries the participants edited are listed up on the Outreach Dashboard [[Bengkel Wikikamus Bahasa Kadazandusun]].

The second event is the 55th Wikipedia meetup in Malaysia on 14 March 2023, known as WikiGap Malaysia 2023 – Tuaran. As other WikiGap event in Malaysia, it was supported by Swedish Embassy in Malaysia. Participants created 163 new women articles in Kadazandusun Wikipedia Incubator and planned to establish Wiki Club.

You can see the details of the event on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Sabah 12]] and the articles the participants edited are listed up on the Outreach Dashboard [[WikiGap Malaysia 2023 – Tuaran]].

After the event, Kent Wiki Club was finally formed at Wikimania 2023 in Singapore! You can watch the video of the club’s inaugural ceremony on Wikimedia Commons [[File:Kent Wiki Club Inaugural Ceremony.webm]]. You can also read the reports of the participants in a Diff post “Wikimania 2023 reports from Malaysian Wikimedians“.

This club is attracting worldwide attention! Wikimedians around the world, including Jimmy Wales, gave celebratory comments to the club on a Diff post “Student Wikimedian Clubs were formed!“.

Wikimania 2023 reports from Malaysian Wikimedians

Student Wikimedian Clubs were formed!

University of Malaya

On 10 November 2021, the 35th Wikipedia meetup in Malaysia was held at University of Malaya. At the meetup, Dody Ismoyo and SNN95 gave an overview of Wikimedia projects, Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Community User Group Malaysia. You can see the details of the event on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Kuala Lumpur 8]].

There is another Wikimedia event at the university. It is the 57th Wikipedia meetup in Malaysia, known as Ukraine’s Cultural Diplomacy Month 2023. It is a global campaign to create and improve articles about the culture and people of Ukraine. This meetup was held as a joint collaboration with the Embassy of Ukraine in Malaysia.

You can see the details of the event on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Kuala Lumpur 14]] and the articles the participants edited are listed up on the Outreach Dashboard [[Bulan Diplomasi Budaya Ukraine]].

Universiti Sains Malaysia

Universiti Sains Malaysia (Science University of Malaysia) had several Wikimedia events. The first one is the 20th Wikipedia Malaysia Meetup on 12 December 2018. At the event, Taufik Rosman gave a talk about Wikimedia projects and Wikimedia Movements around the world to 15 postgraduate students from Thailand. You can see the details of the event on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Penang 1]].

The second event is the 29th Wikipedia Malaysia Meetup on 9 October 2019. It focused on the collaboration between Wikimedia and GLAM (Gallery, Library, Archive and Museum). Taufik Rosman showed some examples outside Malaysia to the staff of Tuanku Fauziah Museum and Gallery at the University. You can see the details of the event on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Penang 2]].

The third is the 49th Wikipedia meetup in Malaysia on 3 December 2022. At the event, Taufik Rosman had a Wikipedia editing workshop for 24 participants. You can see the details of the event on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Penang 3]] and the articles the participants edited are listed up on the Outreach Dashboard [[Bengkel Menterjemah Wikipedia]].

Universiti Utara Malaysia

On 14 April 2019, the 21st Wikipedia meetups in Malaysia was held at Universiti Utara Malaysia (Northern University of Malaysia). This event focused on “Wikipedia and Wikimedia Foundation Projects and Their Relevance to the Academia.” Dody Ismoyo gave a talk about various topic to 50 UUM staffs and students from the School of Computing. You can see the datails on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Kedah 1]].

Crescendo International College

Crescendo International College had several Wikimedia events. The first one is the 8th Wikipedia meetups in Malaysia on 9 December 2017. It was a Wikipedia editing workshop and Dody Ismoyo gave a talk about Wikimedia projects. You can see the details of the event on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Johor 4]].

The second event is the 14th Wikipedia meetup in Malaysia on 14 July 2018. Dody also gave a presentation and participants enjoyed Wikipedia Adventure, a game for Wikipedia tutorial. You can see the details of the event on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Johor 8]].

The third event is the 26th Wikipedia meetups in Malaysia on 22 June 2019. Dody also introduced Wikimedia projects and Wikimedia Movement around the world. You can see the details of the event and message for Wikimedians on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Johor 12]].

We hope those ‘senior’ Wikipedia editors can have more understanding for not scrutinizing too much on the newly written articles by the newbie editors. Of course their creation will not achieve a C-class or B-class level of article writing first during their first time trial. Even to reach a stub-class article, almost all of them took more than 3 hours to complete, so we hope for those senior Wikipedia editors who act as the ‘police’ to patrol the newly written articles to have a more understanding on the condition we are facing during this meetup or any future meetup. At least please don’t scrutinize the article in the first 24 hours after its creation (some even tag it for deletion due to its very minimal content, another moved the article to draft because of its incompleteness and another fully move the article (as a redirect) to other more well-established article). I understand that we all have this kind of mechanism to minimize spammers in Wikipedia. But apparently, this kind of system also heavily affect the genuine newbie editors, and it can heavily discourage them from continuing to edit in Wikipedia. If this is how we run Wikipedia, there will be less and less new editors from now onward to continue this Wikimedia Foundation movement in the future.

English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Johor 12]] 13:31, 12 September 2023‎ (UTC)

Sunway College

On 20 January 2018, the 9th Wikipedia meetups in Malaysia was held at Sunway College. At this meetup, Dody Ismoyo, Exec8 and SNN95 served as presenters and trainers for 25 participants. You can see the details of the event on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Johor 5]].

Multimedia University

On 6 October 2018, the 18th Wikipedia meetups in Malaysia was held at Multimedia University. At this event, Dody presented Wikimedia Projects and Wikimedia Movements. You can see the details of the event on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Melaka 1]].

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank all the Malaysian Wikimedians who have made great efforts to organize Wikimedia events in universities and colleges. Especially, I was moved by two wonderful Wikimedians, Taufik Rosman and Dody Ismoyo. Their activities will serve as a model for Wikimedians all over the world.

In addition, I was surprised that detailed records were kept for each event and these records were collected on English Wikipedia [[Wikipedia:Meetup/Malaysia]] and MetaWiki [[Wikimedia Community User Group Malaysia/Calendar]]. I think each record will serve as a valuable reference for Wikimedia history and the pages that collect the records will help historians and Wikimedians who are interested in Wikimedia history like me.

I am proud to work with Malaysian Wikimedians under Wikimedia Japan-Malaysia Friendship project. I can’t wait to hold collaborative events and make records!