This August was my first visit ever to the wonderful and exciting Singapore. Also, it was the first WikiWomen Summit @ Wikimania ever! Nowadays we are dealing with many challenges here in Israel and I found some time to sit back and reflect on everything that I have experienced there.
Getting there
It’s all started when I found out I have received the scholarship from the Wikimedia Foundation. I was very happy and started making my trip plan. It was not the first time that I have applied for that but it was the first time I received, and with that being said, it made me feel very welcomed. It was my 2nd Wikimania onsite: the 1st one was in Stockholm back in 2019, before Covid-19 burst into our life. The fact that I was part of a large group of people from all around the world made me feel that I am in the right place for me. I landed in Abu Dhabi and already there I met fellow wikipedian and spent the transit time together talking about our plans for Wikimania.
Mind The Gap
15th August 2023, Tuesday
On Tuesday morning I woke up (it wasn’t that easy cause I was still jetlagged) and went on my way to find the share ride to Google Campus! I was so excited and the warm welcome was heart warming.
Even on the drive I have met some women that shared online projects of the Wikimedia foundation before (such as Wikilearn) and it was great to finally see the faces and get to meet in person. Other than meeting friend from different places it was a great pleasure for me to meet fellow wiki women from all around the world. For me it was the 1st time ever to really meet women from New Zealand, Benin and so on. We enjoyed sessions that focuses on the introduction of less visible and very interesting Wikimedia projects, such as: The gender gap in Wikimedia, art & culture, language & translation etc. I came back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day practicing and rehearsing my talk, that was scheduled to the day after.
The launching of the 1st WikiWomen Summit at Wikimania
16th August 2023, Wednesday
On this morning I woke up with a song in my heart: Today I am going to be presenting my talk! The one talk I have rehearsed and practiced over the last couple of months. This day he program was dedicated to workshops, lectures and panel discussions by gender organizers from around the globe. My talk was during the first portion of this day that covered gender organizing. I was very excited and off course left with the feeling that I forget to say many things that I have planned to. I dedicated this talk to my friend Deror Avi Lin who passed away just few months ago. I named my talk: “I am a (Wiki)woman in love”. You can find the video from my talk right here.
After my talk I had great time listening to others talking about topics related to being a Wikiwomen and I have enjoyed many inspiring conversation.
Wikimania!
16th -18th August 2023
In the next few day I had the opportunity to socialize and to attended many more interesting events, in and out the main hall conference. On Friday I had the honor to join the Commons User group for the Commons User Group Photowalk! We took some amazing pictures and I must say that I was surprised to explore many places that I didn’t have a chance to visit beforehand, and with such a great company!
I also took the metro, and joined other fellows Wikipedians to the visit to Singapore Botanical Gardens, and it was great way to get to know other attended and to walk around the tropical rainforest and the Evolution Garden.
The WikiWomen Annual Lunch
19th August 2023, Saturday
As a wikiwomen, the highlight of this day was defiantly the WikiWomen’s Lunch Table 2023 at Wikimania. This was exclusively for women+ attendees, and I found it inspiring. The fact that the lunch was very well organized allowed me to meet some new faces that I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to in the 2-3 previous days of Wikimania in Singapore (or ever!).
I came back home with lots of new ideas and exciting project that I have heard of during the Wikimania and I would like to implement here in Israel too. I can’t wait to meet everyone again!
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