What we have gained from Wikimedia

In this article, Wikimedians introduce what they gained from Wikimedia.

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• Wikimedia has taught me that we can make this world a better place by opening up knowledge. — User:Eugene Ormandy (Toumon Wikipedian Club Japan, Newcomer of the Year 2023)

• Wikimedia allowed me to collaborate with people from the geographies I saw in books and on the internet when I was a child, based on our common interests. It also allowed me to create an ecosystem that will enable young people in my country to contribute to Wikimedia projects. It also enabled me to contribute to the preservation of knowledge, the most important heritage of humanity, with projects such as Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. — User:Kurmanbek (Turkic Wikimedians, Wikimedia Turkey, and BİLGİ Wikipedia Student Club)

• Many global wiki friends. Improved critical reading and writing skills. Sensitivity to copyrights. Ability to be more tolerant to different opinions. Feeling special -and sometines weird- . Optimism about making internet better. — Basak (Wikimedia Community User Group Türkiye)

• Insight into an emerging career path and access to a growing truly global community………..Its almost like having work colleagues in every part of the world. — Wilson Oluoha (Igbo Wikimedians)

• The ideal that a tech utopia is still possible and can also be very democratic. — Saebou (Wikipedia Translation Project @Musashi University, Japanese Wikipedia)

• Friendship all around the world, engaging with an important global movement, discover and enjoy the cultural diversity from my home country as well as different country around the world. — Joycewikiwiki (Wikimedia Taiwan, Wikidata Taiwan)

• The powers of cooperation, research and collaboration. This is the first thing that we learn in our journey as Wikimedians. As the time passed, I also got acquainted with the importance of the open source movement, the free software and how this can be a component to make a better world. As I was a high school student when I began to mature my contributions in the project, it also satisfied my need to do something good for my classmates producing good articles related with the school curriculum, as well. In 2023 my involvement from Wikimedia showed how important is to incorporate it in the university curriculum, as an alternative to the university projects. It also allowed me to make friends from a lot of countries in the world, and meet hundreds of people from every side of the world. To sum up, Wikimedia teaches you the importance of collaboration, forging friendships with people from all the world, something that allows you to be more open-thinking, writing a neutral, good encyclopedic text, and being a better person in general who works in order to promote his language on the internet. The Wikimedian values, once you embrace them as a part of your life, make you better person as a whole, not only here, but in the real life as well. Wikimedia is an intangible part of humanity. This is a general summary of what I have learned so far. — Nikos Likomitros, Greek Wikimedian

• As a Wikimedian, knowing, meeting and learning from fellow volunteers across the globe has enriched not only my knowledge base but also solidified my advocacy to contribute to the open knowledge, open values, the commons and sharing them not only in our community or organization but to other channels that we engage with. It also enabled me to share my skills, capabilities and talent in building communities, collaboration and empowering women while dipping my hand in advocacy and public policy and sigital rights. — Lady01v (Shared Knowledge Asia Pacific)

• “Getting anything back” from Wikimedia is often frowned upon, at least in this part of the Wikimedia world.
  In the realm of Wikimedia outreach, my experience indicates that volunteer hours are never truly without reciprocity. While labeled as “volunteer hours” and inherently unpaid, they encompass various forms of reward. This might involve the satisfaction of contributing to the repository of human knowledge, the joy derived from knowing one’s work reaches a global audience of thousands or even millions, or the acquisition of new knowledge and skills. Especially when implementing Wikimedia in educational institutions, depending on the cultural context, it’s evident that you may need to convince numerous stakeholders about what students will gain from engaging with Wikimedia. If you claim there’s no benefit, be prepared to bid them farewell.
  
  Through my involvement in the movement, my achievements have been multifaceted. I’ve experienced substantial growth, ranging from building my critical thinking skills amidst the vast information influx we encounter daily to developing the ability to lead groups lacking traditional power structures. This journey has transformed me from an introverted individual into a confident one.
  
  Wikimedia has blessed me with the courage to address inconvenient truths that impact my work while also assessing potential outcomes. The gains I’ve made encompass a diverse spectrum, contributing significantly to my personal and professional development. — Mrb Rafi (NDEC Wikipedia Editorial and Research Team)

• Through my collaborative work with other editors on the English Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, I have gained the ability to document history and amplify the voices of those who are often marginalized in the mainstream media. We need this ad-free, non-profit encyclopedia more than ever in these highly politicized, “post-truth” times. — Funcrunch (Wikimedia LGBT+ User Group, Media Contributor of the Year 2023)

• Connect me with friends from around the world who love to share knowledge and work together to promote equal intellectual rights — Jessie Mi (East Asia Regional Ambassador of Art and feminism, Director of Wikimedia Taiwan)

• Connecting with other Wikimedians unlocks infinite opportunities for self-improvement and for the community.
• Sharing our stories and successes to other fellow Wikimedians inspire people to do more for the movement.
• Never stop trying and each of your contributions makes a different.— Taufik Rosman (Wikimedia Community User Group Malaysia)

Besides the huge amount of reliable and diverse knowledge, from every corner and topics around the world, Wikimedia gave me…

• opportunities to develop my interests and skills in a highly professional and international environment.
• the chance to know more about the local communities around me and work together to share that knowledge with the rest of the world.
• experiences to learn (and continue learning) to work collaboratively, with others who share a common broad goal but who may have diverse cultural backgrounds, opinions and ways of working.
• friends from all over the world!
• all in all, the joy and passion of participating in a worldwide community determined to change the world for good, making sure that everyone’s contribution counts in building knowledge together, and that everyone can have access to it. — Diego de la Hera (Wikimedia Argentina and Wikimedistas Calamuchita)